. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Dec 1.

Published in final edited form as: Surgery. 2010 Dec;148(6):1170–1177. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2010.09.025

Table 2.

Comparison of Scoring Model Results with Preoperative Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) Biopsy Result and the Permanent Histologic Diagnosis

NCI Category of FNA biopsy	Risk of Malignancy (per NCI Guidelines)	Number of patients in Study Cohort	Scoring Model Result	Final Histology	% Malignancy (in Study Cohort)
Benign	< 1%	186	186 Benign	41 Benign	11%
Benign	< 1%	186	0 Malignant	5 Malignant: 5 Papillary ^*	11%
Atypia of Undetermined Significance	5 – 10%	41	34 Benign (12 False negative)	26 Benign	37%
Atypia of Undetermined Significance	5 – 10%	41	7 Malignant (4 False positive)	15 Malignant 4 Papillary, 5 follicular variant of Papillary 5 Follicular 1 Medullary	37%
Neoplasm	20–30%	43	41 Benign (12 False negative)	29 benign	33%
Neoplasm	20–30%	43	2 Malignant (Follicular)	14 Malignant 7 Papillary 5 Follicular 2 Hurthle cell	33%
Suspicious for Malignancy	50–75%	13	0 Benign	3 benign	77%
Suspicious for Malignancy	50–75%	13	13 Malignant (3 False positive)	10 Malignant 8 Papillary, 1 follicular variant of papillary 1 Anaplastic	77%
Malignant	100%	78	0 Benign	0 benign	100%
Malignant	100%	78	78 Malignant	78 Malignant 72 Papillary, 3 follicular variant of papillary 2 Medullary 1 Anaplastic	100%

All the tumors were conventional papillary thyroid cancer and 1.5 cm or less in greatest diameter but in the dominant nodule which was biopsied. Thus, the cytopathologic diagnosis was a false negative interpretation. These patients had a thyroidectomy either due to increased tumor size on follow up ultrasound or suspicious ultrasound features.