Table 4.

Evaluation of diagnostic efficiency for different combination schemes in Bethesda II, V, and VI.

Identification scheme	Evaluation conditions	Surgical histopathology		Predictive value, %
		Malignant (n = 112)	Benign (n = 4)	Sen	Spe	PPV	NPV	AC
Cytology	V–VI	112	3	100	25	97.4	100	97.4
	II	0	1
Pathogenic mutation	NGS (+)	98	2	87.5	50	98	12.5	86.2
	NGS (−)	14	2
Cytology with pathogenic mutation	V–VI and NGS (+)	98	1	87.5	75	99	17.6	87.1
	II or NGS (−)	14	3

Cytology: Only cytology results were used to diagnose benign or malignant. ‘Malignant’” was defined as Bethesda V−VI, and ‘Benign/negative’ was defined as Bethesda II (116 samples).

Pathogenic mutation: Only genetic test results were used to diagnose benign or malignant. ‘Malignant’ was defined as positive pathogenic gene mutations in the detection range, and ‘Benign’ was defined as negative pathogenic gene mutations in the detection range (116 samples).

Cytology with pathogenic mutation: ‘Malignant’ was defined as Bethesda V–VI with positive pathogenic gene mutations, and ‘Benign’ was defined as Bethesda II or negative gene mutations (116 samples).

AC, acuracy; NPV, negative predictive value; PPV, positive predictive value; Sen, sensitivity; Spe, specificity.