Thyroid cytology and risk of thyroid cancer: differences among indeterminate specimens.

Objective: To assess the potential for stratification of indeterminate cytologic findings on fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of thyroid nodules in an effort to improve therapeutic strategies.

Methods: We attempted to determine the malignant risk associated with various indeterminate FNA cytologic patterns by correlation of specimens with the final histologic diagnosis. For this analysis, we identified 294 computerized medical records of surgically treated thyroid nodules during a 5-year period at our institution with the corresponding FNA cytology reports available.