Table 3.
Analysis of the present data in comparison with that of the literature
| Reference 1st author, yr, [ref. number] | Cytology (n in each subcategory) | Operated nodules, n | Malignant nodules, n (%) | PTC, n (%) | BRAF positive PTC, n (%) | Test performance, % | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Se. | Sp. | PPV | NPV | ||||||
| Nikiforov 2009 [19] | FLUS (21), FN (23), SM (7) | 51 | 20 (39%) | 16 (31%) | 7 (14%) | 75 | 100 | 100 | 86 |
| Cantara 2010 [18] | Indeterminate (41), SM (54) | 95 | 53 (56%) | 53 (56%) | 23 (24%) | 81 | 98 | 98 | 80 |
| Nikiforov 2011 [6] | AUS/FLUS (247), FN/SFN (214), SM (52) | 513 | 121 (24%) | 110 (21%) | 17 (3%) | 61 | 98 | 89 | 89 |
| Beaudenon-Huibregtse 2014 [17] | AUS/FLUS (22), FN/SFN (19), SM (12) | 53 | 25 (47%) | na | na | 44 | 89 | 79 | 64 |
| Eszlinger 2014 [16] | Indeterminate | 141 | 22 (16%) | 2 (1%) | 0 (0%) | 18 | 86 | 19 | 85 |
| Eszlinger 2015 [15] | Thy 3 (163), Thy 4 (39) | 202 | 83 (41%) | 57 (28%) | 37 (18%) | 60 | 92 | 92 | 77 |
| Labourier 2015 [14] | III (58) IV (51) | 109 | 35 (32%) | na | na | 69 | 86 | 71 | 85 |
| Bongiovanni 2015 [20] | FN/SFN (23) | 23 | 4 (17%) | 1 (4%) | 0 (0%) | 75 | 95 | 95 | 75 |
| Mancini 2012 [21] | Thy 3 (38), Thy 4 (9) | 47 | 17 (36%) | na | na | 59 | 90 | 77 | 79 |
| Bellevicine 2020 [22] | AUS/FLUS (86), FN/SFN (34), SM (57) | 177 | 93 (53%) | 82 (46%) | 39 (48%) | 63 | 67 | 68 | 62 |
| Present study | III (37), IV (84), V (10) | 131 | 21 (16%) | 9 (7%) | 4 (3%) | 48 | 95 | 67 | 91 |
III, IV, V: for Bethesda class III, IV or V
Thy 3, equivalent to FN/SFN; Thy 4, equivalent to SM
AUS/FLUS atypia of undetermined significance/follicular lesion of undetermined significance, FN/SFN follicular neoplasm/suspicious for follicular neoplasm (FN) or Hürthle cell neoplasm, SM suspicious for malignancy