engleski

The Follow-up of Benign Thyroid Nodules

Distinguishing precissely malignant from benign, ultrasound guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) is widely accepted as a powerfull tool in evaluation and follow up of thyroid nodules. The choice of nodule and time for repeted FNAB depends mostly of the examiner’ s expirience. Our intention was to evaluate the reliability of initial benign diagnosis and enable more rational approach in echographic follow up of those patients. 163 patients (154 female, 9 male) with initially benign findings of FNAB in 202 thyroid nodules were included in five years follow up study. Ultrasound revealed solitary nodule in 63 cases and multinodular goiter in 100 pts. FNAB were repeated once or more times (454 in total) for various reasons. 186 (92%) of nodules remained benign, 15(7, 5%) became suspicious for follicular tumour (six of them were surgicaly removed and classified as benign) and in 1 case (0, 5%) papillary cancer was found and confirmed by surgery. Our results indicate that clinical findings or suspicious scintigraphic and echographic appearance in initially benign thyroid nodules are not associated with a high yield of malignancy in repeated FNAB. However, it seems reasonable to performe at least one repeated FNAB to confirm the original benign diagnosis.

thyroid nodules; follow-up

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