Follicular lesions of thyroid

Abstract

The reviewers agreed with the reported FNA diagnosis of follicular lesion in 63 of the 92 patients studied. No distinguishing cytologic features predictive of the histologic outcome were found in any of these 63 patients. Seven patients were judged by the reviewers to have insufficient cells for evaluation. In the remaining 22 patients, the reviewers' diagnoses were in agreement with the histologic diagnoses in 17 patients. CONCLUSIONS. The authors found that there is a gray area in the cytologic diagnosis of patients with thyroid lesions by FNA due to inherent similarities at the light microscopic level. However, increased specificity may be achieved by careful attention to cytologic features and morphologic detail. Skillful application of FNA techniques, with the recovery of an adequate sample, will further decrease both interpretive errors and the number of patients diagnosed with "follicular lesions."