TABLE 1.
Definitions of Diagnostic Categories
| Diagnostic Category |
Definition |
|---|---|
|
| |
| I. UNSAT | Insufficient diagnostic material (eg, lack of adrenal cortical cells or abnormal elements) |
| II. NN | Nonneoplastic elements (eg, inflammation [acute, chronic, granulomatous], infection, pseudocyst, etc) |
| III. BACE | Bland appearing adrenal cortical cells; no mitosis, no necrosis; correlates with normal adrenal cortex, adrenal cortical hyperplasia, or adrenal cortical adenoma |
| IV. NONC | Features suggestive of a primary noncortical neoplasm (eg, pheochromocytoma, ganglioneuroma, nerve sheath tumors, etc); excludes overt primary malignant tumors (eg, neuroblastoma, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor, etc) |
| V. AUS | Cytologic atypia that does not fulfill the criteria for the other categories; specimens have low cellularity and/or lack qualitative evidence of a malignancya |
| VI. SM | Findings highly suggestive of but not definite for malignancy due to lack of quantitative evidencea |
| VII. MAL | Specimens with high cellularity, marked atypia, frequent mitoses, and necrosisa |
Abbreviations: AUS, atypia of undetermined significance; BACE, benign adrenal cortical elements; MAL, malignant; NN, nonneoplastic; NONC, primary neoplasm of noncortical origin; SM, suspicious for malignancy; UNSAT, nondiagnostic.
a
Whether the cells are of adrenal cortical origin should be reported if possible by morphology and/or ancillary studies.