Papillary thyroid carcinoma and its variants in fine needle aspiration smears. A cytomorphologic study with special reference to tall cell variant.

Objective: To study the fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytologic features of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) with special reference to its tall cell variant (TCV), which is the most aggressive of the variants.

Study Design: Fifty-four PTC cases were classified into variants, and the frequency of well-known morphologic criteria was determined. Four parameters were quantitatively analyzed based on a study of 200 consecutive neoplastic follicular cells: shape of cells, color of cytoplasm, intranuclear cytoplasmic inclusion (INCI) and nuclear grooves.