Combined fine-needle aspiration with core needle biopsy for assessing thyroid nodules: a more valuable diagnostic method?

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of combined fine-needle aspiration (FNA) with core needle biopsy (CNB) in thyroid nodules. @*Methods@#FNA and CNB were performed simultaneously on 703 nodules. We compared the proportions of inconclusive results and the diagnostic performance for malignancy among FNA, CNB, and combined FNA/CNB for different nodule sizes. @*Results@#Combined FNA/CNB showed lower proportions of inconclusive results than CNB for all nodules (2.8% vs. 5.7%, P1.0 cm (2.0% vs. 5.0 %, P1.5 cm (2.1% vs. 3.9 %, P=0.016). The sensitivity of combined FNA/CNB in predicting malignancy was significantly higher than that of CNB (89.0% vs. 80.0%, P1.5 cm, the difference between combined FNA/CNB and CNB was not significant (84.2% vs. 78.9%, P=0.500). @*Conclusion@#Regardless of nodule size, combined FNA/CNB tended to yield lower proportions of inconclusive results than CNB or FNA alone and exhibited higher performance in diagnosing malignancy. The combined FNA/CNB technique may be a more valuable diagnostic method for nodules ≤1.5 cm and nodules with a risk of malignancy than CNB and FNA alone.