Table 7.

Diagnostic abilities of the three pathology techniques

Indicators	Core tissue (A)	Liquid-based cytology (B)	Smear cytology (C)	P	P (A vs. B)	P (A vs. C)	P (B vs. C)
SS
Sensitivity, % (95% CI)	48.93 (40.56-57.30)	60.71 (53.37-68.05)	35.58 (25.95-45.21)	<0.0001	0.0051	0.0016	<0.0001
Specificity, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
Accuracy, % (95% CI)	50.86 (45.12-56.60)	62.20 (56.63-67.77)	37.91 (32.20-43.62)	<0.0001	0.0058	0.0019	<0.0001
PPV, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
NPV, % (95% CI)	7.14 (3.07-11.21)	9.09 (3.97-14.21)	5.49 (2.18-8.80)	0.4842	0.5545	0.534	0.2274
SP
Sensitivity, % (95% CI)	41.43 (32.47-50.39)	46.07 (37.47-54.67)	44.53 (35.56-53.50)	0.5302	0.2681	0.465	0.7176
Specificity, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
Accuracy, % (95% CI)	43.64 (37.94-49.34)	48.11 (42.37-53.85)	46.74 (40.85-52.63)	0.5421	0.2795	0.459	0.7439
PPV, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
NPV, % (95% CI)	6.29 (2.69-9.89)	6.79 (2.92-10.66)	6.96 (2.99-10.93)	0.9671	0.8514	0.8041	0.9515
WS
Sensitivity, % (95% CI)	48.57 (40.17-56.97)	52.86 (44.82-60.90)	40.66 (31.52-49.80)	0.0145	0.3104	0.0613	0.0041
Specificity, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
Accuracy, % (95% CI)	50.52 (44.78-56.26)	54.64 (48.92-60.36)	42.96 (37.20-48.72)	0.0178	0.3192	0.0694	0.0051
PPV, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
NPV, % (95% CI)	7.10 (3.06-11.14)	7.69 (3.32-12.06)	6.36 (2.72-10.00)	0.8973	0.8443	0.7895	0.6428
Overall
Sensitivity, % (95% CI)	73.57 (67.55-79.59)	76.79 (71.15-82.43)	65.36 (58.47-72.25)	0.0081	0.3786	0.0348	0.0029
Specificity, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
Accuracy, % (95% CI)	74.57 (69.57-79.57)	77.66 (72.87-82.45)	66.67 (61.25-72.09)	0.0087	0.3816	0.0363	0.0031
PPV, % (95% CI)	100	100	100
NPV, % (95% CI)	12.94 (5.80-20.08)	14.47 (6.56-22.38)	10.19 (4.48-15.90)	0.6654	0.7775	0.5498	0.3773

CI: Confidence interval, PPV: Positive predictive value, NPV: Negative predictive value, SS: Standard suction, SP: Stylet slow-pull, WS: Wet suction