Fine needle cytologic diagnosis of thyroid nodules. Review and report of 300 cases.

Three hundred patients with thyroid nodules were evaluated with fine needle biopsy and cytologic evaluation. Nineteen of 23 cancers were diagnosed by fine needle biopsy alone, for a yield of 83 percent. Four of 300 diagnoses (1 percent) were false-positive, and the evidence of neoplasm at operation was 68 percent. We believe that fine needle biopsy will greatly decrease the number of unnecessary thyroid resections.