Clinical and pathologic features and clinical impact of false negative thyroid fine-needle aspirations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although thyroid fine-needle aspiration (TFNA) is an excellent test in evaluating thyroid nodules, there are occasionally false negatives (FN). The clinical impact and pathologic features of FN TFNA is understudied in the peer-reviewed literature. METHODS: A cohort of patients with thyroid cancer was separated into those with referring FN TFNA and those with referring true positive (TP) TFNA. Preoperative characteristics, pathologic finding, and clinical outcomes were compared within the 2 groups. RESULTS: A total of 192 patients with TP TFNA (n = 162) and FN TFNA (n = 30) were included in the study. There were no significant differences in the demographics or length of follow-up of the 2 groups. The FN TFNA group was more likely to have a larger clinical nodule size and experienced a significant delay from initial TFNA to surgery. The FN TFNA group was more likely to be diagnosed with the follicular variant of papillary thyroid cancer (73.3% vs 25.9%, P