Conditions associated with the need for additional needle passes in ultrasound-guided thyroid fine-needle aspiration with rapid on-site pathology evaluation.

Background: Rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE) is a valuable tool for specimen adequacy assessment in thyroid ultrasound (US)-guided fine-needle aspiration (US-guided FNA). To reduce the risk of nondiagnostic samples, additional needle passes may be needed at ROSE to ensure adequate sampling. Recommendations regarding the number of aspirates to ensure specimen adequacy are not well defined. Furthermore, there are limited data regarding nodule characteristics that may require increased sampling. In this study, we investigate conditions associated with requiring more than three needle passes during ROSE.

Methods: A retrospective quality review of all patients who underwent US-guided thyroid FNA by a single board-certified radiologist over a 1-year period was performed. A total of 122 patients were identified: 70 with three passes performed and 52 with more than three passes to achieve adequacy.

Result: Our data demonstrate that large nodules (≥3 cm) were more likely than small nodules (≤1.1 cm) to require more than three passes to achieve adequacy. If a nodule was predominantly cystic or mixed cystic and solid, the sample was often adequate with only three passes. In cases of thyroiditis or nodules suspicious or diagnostic of neoplasia, there is a trend to require only three passes for adequacy.

Conclusion: On the basis of the data presented in this study, cytopathologists should be prepared for the potential need to obtain additional needle passes in larger (≥3 cm) nodules and provide reassurance to patients that this is an anticipated finding for these larger nodules.