Papillary thyroid carcinoma: an easy fine needle aspiration biopsy diagnosis?

Objective: To analyze reasons for unclear or missed diagnoses in fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).

Study Design: Among 35,000 thyroid FNAB diagnoses made during 1989-2009, 135 PTC FNAB diagnoses were divided into 3 categories by expressed probability. A group of 10 cases with histologic PTC diagnosis not mentioned in our previous FNAB sample was also analyzed.

Fine needle aspiration biopsy of mixed medullary-follicular thyroid carcinoma. A report of two cases.

Background: Mixed differentiated thyroid carcinomas are rare tumors, difficult to recognize on fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). Most cases are diagnosed only after histologic investigation.

Cases: The cases entailed two cytologic samples and a thyroidectomy specimen.

[Pitfalls in cytologic diagnosis of thyroid disease associated with pregnancy].

The activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary thyroidal axis during pregnancy and puerperal period may provoke an unusual morphological response that is hard to distinguish from malignancy. Moreover, autoimmune thyroiditis (postpartum thyroiditis--PPT) becomes manifest or aggravated in some predisposed women prone to contract thyroiditis with the termination of the physiological gestation immunosuppression. In five cytologically investigated women (some of whom were examined repeatedly) during the postpartum period less typical goitre and lymphoplasmacytic thyroiditis were observed.