Table 3.
Cytological diagnostic capacity and specimen quality of the different suction techniques
| Slow-pull (n = 31) | 5-mL (n = 19) | 10-mL (n = 34) | 20-mL (n = 18) | P value1 | |
| Cytological diagnostic capacity | |||||
| Accuracy | 28/31 (90.3%) | 12/19 (63.2%) | 20/34 (58.8%) | 10/18 (55.6%) | 0.0192 |
| Sensitivity | 15/17 (88.2%) | 5/12 (41.7%) | 8/20 (40.0%) | 4/11 (36.4%) | 0.0092 |
| Specificity | 13/14 (92.9%) | 7/7 (100%) | 12/14 (85.7%) | 6/7 (85.7%) | 0.914 |
| PPV | 15/16 (93.8%) | 5/5 (100%) | 8/10 (80.0%) | 4/5 (80.0%) | 0.542 |
| NPV | 13/15 (86.7%) | 7/14 (50.0%) | 12/24 (50.0%) | 6/13 (46.2%) | 0.079 |
| Cytological specimen quality | |||||
| Cellularity score ≥ 2 | 22/31 (71.0%) | 11/19 (57.9%) | 20/34 (58.8%) | 13/18 (72.2%) | 0.598 |
| Blood contamination score ≥ 2 | 9/31 (29.0%) | 10/19 (52.6%) | 24/34 (70.6%) | 13/18 (72.2%) | 0.0032 |
1
Fisher’s exact test for “specificity” and “PPV”; χ2 test for the rest;
2
Statistically significant. PPV: Positive predictive value; NPV: Negative predictive value.