The Accurate Interpretation and Clinical Significance of Morphological Features of Fine Needle Aspiration Cells in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

Table 4

The nuclear structural characteristics of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma and benign lesions (%).

Groups	n	Nuclear CI	Grooves	INCIs	Pale nuclei	Nucleoli
PTC	337	333 (98.81)	321 (95.25)	328 (97.32)	333 (98.81)	309 (91.69)
BL	197	35 (17.77)	96 (48.73)	0 (0.00)	54 (27.415)	105 (53.30%)
TAD	71	19 (26.76)	44 (61.97)	0 (0.00)	27 (38.03)	42 (59.15)
NG	64	8 (12.5)	20 (31.25)	0 (0.00)	4 (6.25)	28 (43.75)
HD	23	4 (17.39)	12 (57.14)	0 (0.00)	12 (57.14)	21 (91.30)
NG and TAD	39	4 (10.26)	20 (51.28)	0 (0.00)	11 (28.21)	14 (35.90)
Sensitivity	(±95% CI)	98.81 (±1.16)	95.25 (±2.27)	97.33 (±1.72)	98.81 (±1.16)	91.69 (±2.95)
Specificity	(±95% CI)	82.23 (±5.34)	51.27 (±6.98)*	100.00 (±0)	72.59 (±6.23)	46.70 (±6.97)^**
Accuracy	(±95% CI)	92.70 (±2.21)	79.02 (±3.45)	98.31 (±1.09)	89.14 (±2.64)	75.09 (±3.67)

PTC: papillary thyroid carcinoma; BL: benign lesions; TAD: thyroid adenoma; NG: nodular goiter; HD: Hashimoto’s disease; nuclear CI: nuclear contour irregularity; grooves: longitudinal nuclear grooves; INCIs: intranuclear cytoplasmic pseudoinclusions; pale nuclei: pale nuclei with powdery chromatin; nucleoli: marginally placed micronucleoli.
* as compared to pale nuclei, ** as compared to pale nuclei.