Table 1 Malignancy rates for thyroid nodules that did not meet adequacy criteria and subsequent resection according to sonographic patterns and six nondiagnostic or unsatisfactory subcategories modified from the Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology from April 2011 to March 2016.
FNA cytopathology | ATA nodule sonographic patterns | All FNAs (Number) | Surgically resected nodules (Number) | Malignant nodules confirmed by surgery (Number) | Malignancy rate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
% maximum* | % minimum† | |||||
Nondiagnostic | High suspicion | 30 | 9 | 8 | 88.9% | 26.7% |
Others | 201 | 10 | 4 | 40.0% | 2.0% | |
Overall | 231 | 19 | 12 | 63.2% | 5.2% | |
Unsatisfactory + Benign | High suspicion | 76 | 10 | 7 | 70.0% | 9.2% |
Others | 836 | 50 | 15 | 30.0% | 1.8% | |
Overall | 912 | 60 | 22 | 36.7% | 2.4% | |
Unsatisfactory + AUS/FLUS | High suspicion | 79 | 35 | 32 | 91.4% | 40.5% |
Others | 132 | 34 | 18 | 52.9% | 13.6% | |
Overall | 211 | 69 | 50 | 72.5% | 23.7% | |
Unsatisfactory + FN/SFN | High suspicion | 0 | 0 | 0 | NA | NA |
Others | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
Overall | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0.0% | 0.0% | |
Unsatisfactory + Suspicious for malignancy | High suspicion | 54 | 41 | 41 | 100.0% | 75.9% |
Others | 21 | 13 | 12 | 92.3% | 57.1% | |
Overall | 75 | 54 | 53 | 98.1% | 70.7% | |
Unsatisfactory + Malignant | High suspicion | 17 | 8 | 8 | 100.0% | 47.1% |
Others | 1 | 1 | 1 | 100.0% | 100.0% | |
Overall | 18 | 9 | 9 | 100.0% | 50.0% | |
Total | High suspicion | 256 | 103 | 96 | 93.2% | 37.5% |
Others | 1194 | 110 | 50 | 45.5% | 4.2% | |
Overall | 1450 | 213 | 146 | 68.5% | 10.1% | |
