Molecular Testing of Thyroid Fine-Needle Aspirations Improves Presurgical Diagnosis and Supports the Histologic Identification of Minimally Invasive Follicular Thyroid Carcinomas

摘要

Background: Previous studies detecting mutations in thyroid nodule fine-needle aspiration (FNA) material differed with respect to the cytologic grading applied to the FNAs, the type of FNA material used, and the prevalence of mutations observed in the samples. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate these differences as possible reasons for the discrepant sensitivities and specificities reported for the "ruling-in" approach between the previous studies.