The predictive value of sonographic images of follicular lesions – a comparison with nodules unequivocal in FNA – single centre prospective study

Table 1 Demographic data of the patients and the percentage of cancers revealed in the nodules with unequivocal and equivocal FNA results

Parameter	Category of FNA
	UC		FL
	BL	MN	FLUS	SFN
Number of patients	200	100	202	120
Age - mean ± SD [years]	53.7 ± 11.4	50.3 ± 14.1	52.8 ± 13.7	52.4 ± 14.9
Number (%) of males	13 (6.5)	8 (8.0)	19 (9.4)	15 (12.5)
Volume of nodules -mean ± SD [cm³]	8.5 ± 13.3	2.6 ± 4.6^a	6.4 ± 12.6	5.3 ± 11.5
% of cancers in histopathological outcome	0	100	6.4	10.8
% of PTCs in malignant neoplasms	0	89.0	69.2	30.8
% of adenomas in histopathologically benign lesions	5.5	0	11.4	25.8

BL benign lesion, FL follicular lesion, FLUS follicular lesions of undetermined significance, MN malignant neoplasm, PTC papillary carcinoma, SFN suspicious for follicular neoplasm, UC unequivocal cytology
^ap < 0.01 MN vs BL; the distribution of small (<1 cm) nodules between UC and FL groups was even

ISSN: 1472-6823