A COMPARISON OF FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION BIOPSY AND FROZEN SECTION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF THYROIDECTOMIES
İSKENDER SAYEK1, GÜLÜM ALTACA1, ŞEVKET RUACAN2, DEMİRALİ ONAT1, AYŞE AYHAN2, METİN ÇAKMAKÇI1
1Hacettepe Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Genel Cerrahi ABD/ANKARA
2Hacettepe Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Patoloji ABD/ANKARA
Abstract
At Hacettepe University, School of Medicine, 261 thyroidectomies were performed after fine-needle aspiration biopsies (FNA) by a clinical research group from General Surgery Department in a period of six years (1984-1989). Those patients were prospectively analysed. Frozen sections (F/S) were performed for 178 of these patients, and FNA and F/S results were compared. Sensitivity was same in the two groups (69%) (p>0.05). Specificity was 91%, false positivity was 7.3%, overall accuracy 88.76% by FNA, while specificity 98.7%, false positivity 1.12%, overall accuracy 94.94% by F/S. False negative rates were same in the two groups, 3.93% by the two methods (p>0.05). The fact that sensitivity and false negative rates being similar by FNA and F/S demonstrates that FNA, without the need for F/S, is adequate for preoperative diagnosis of thyroid carcinomas and for selecting patients for surgery.