Core needle biopsy for thyroid nodules with previous non-diagnostic fine needle aspiration

Core needle biopsy (CNB) for thyroid nodules with previous non-diagnostic fine needle aspiration (FNA) results showed a low incidence (1.3%, 2/155) of non-diagnostic results. CNB also showed high diagnostic values for neoplasm and malignancy. In addition, CNB could prevent unnecessary diagnostic surgery in 96% (22 of 23) of patients with repeated nondiagnostic FNA results. This result suggests that CNB is a viable method of choice for the reliable diagnosis of thyroid nodules for which previous FNA results were nondiagnostic.

Bibliographic Reference:

Yeon JS et al.: "Thyroid Nodules with Initially Nondiagnostic Cytologic Results: The Role of Core-Needle Biopsy", Radiology 2013 Mar 22 [Epub ahead of print]

Jung Hwan Baek

Department of Radiology and Research Institute of Radiology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea