Ultrasound-Guided Fine Needle Aspiration of Deep Thyroid Nodule: Is There a Correlation between the Nodule’s Depth and Nondiagnostic Results?

Table 1

Demographic and ultrasound clinical characteristics of the study groups.

Variables	All nodules (n = 283)	Bethesda 1 (n = 40)	Bethesda 2–6 (n = 243)	-value
Gender, female (n, %)	234, 82.7	34, 85.0	200, 82.3	0.676
Age, years (mean ± SD)	57.5 ± 14.8	57.3 ± 14.9	57.5 ± 14.9	0.817
Ethnicity (n, %)
Jewish	193, 68.2	27, 67.5	166, 68.3	0.919
Arab	90, 31.8	13, 32.5	77, 31.7
Side (n, %)
Right	156, 55.2	26, 65.0	130, 53.5	0.176
Left	113, 39.9	11, 27.5	102, 42.0
Isthmus	14, 14.9	3, 7.5	11, 4.5
Diameter A (horizontal), mm (mean ± SD)	16.8 ± 8.0	14.5 ± 5.3	17.2 ± 8.3	0.038
Diameter B, (anterior-posterior) mm (mean ± SD)	16.0 ± 7.7	13.5 ± 6.7	16.4 ± 7.8	0.005
Cystic content (n, %)
Solid	166, 58.7	26, 65.0	140, 57.6	0.175
<50%	89, 31.4	8, 20.0	81, 33.3
≥50%	28, 9.9	6, 15.0	22, 9.1
Calcification (n, %)
Non	260, 91.9	36, 90.0	224, 92.2	0.998
Macrocalcification	19, 6.7	3, 7.5	16, 6.6
Microcalcification	4, 1.4	1, 2.5	3, 1.2
Echogenicity (n, %)
Hyperechoic	50, 17.7	6, 15.0	44, 18.1	0.669
Isoechoic	151, 53.4	22, 55.0	129, 53.1
Hypoechoic	23, 8.1	5, 12.5	18, 7.4
Heteroechoic	59, 20.8	7, 17.5	52, 21.4
Nodule depth, mm (mean ± SD)	10.0 ± 6.6	12.1 ± 4.7	9.7 ± 6.8	<0.001
Time of surveillance, m (mean ± SD)	9.2 ± 4.7	10.4 ± 5.6	9.0 ± 4.5	0.090