Comparison of Fine Needle Aspiration and Fine Needle Nonaspiration Cytology of Thyroid Nodules: A Meta-Analysis.
BACKGROUND
Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and fine needle nonaspiration cytology (FNNAC) are useful cost-effective techniques for preoperatively assessing thyroid lesions. Both techniques have advantages and disadvantages, and there is controversy over which method is superior. This meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the differences between FNAC and FNNAC for diagnosis of thyroid nodules.


METHODS
Primary publications were independently collected by two reviewers from PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, EBSCO, OALib, and the Cochrane Library databases. The following search terms were used: fine needle, aspiration, capillary, nonaspiration, sampling without aspiration, thyroid, and cytology. The last search was performed on February 1, 2015.


RESULTS
Sixteen studies comprising 1,842 patients and 2,221 samples were included in this study. No statistically significant difference was observed between FNAC and FNNAC groups with respect to diagnostically inadequate smears, diagnostically superior smears, diagnostic performance (accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value), area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve, average score of each parameter (background blood or clot, amount of cellular material, degree of cellular degeneration, degree of cellular trauma, and retention of appropriate architecture), and total score of five parameters.


CONCLUSIONS
FNAC and FNNAC are equally useful in assessing thyroid nodules.
Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200072, China.
Hongming
H
Song
Department of General Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Taishan Medical University, Taian 271000, China.
Chuankui
C
Wei
Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200072, China.
Dengfeng
D
Li
Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200072, China.
Kaiyao
K
Hua
Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200072, China.
Jialu
J
Song
Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200072, China.
Niraj
N
Maskey
Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai 200072, China.
Lin
L
Fang
D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D006801:Humans; D016606:Thyroid Nodule / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*