Excellent Diagnostic Performance of FNA-Tg in Detecting Lymph Nodes Metastases from Papillary Thyroid Cancer

Abstract

Background: Thyroglobulin washout of fine needle aspiration (FNA-Tg) has proved to be useful in detecting lymph node metastases from papillary thyroid cancer; however, the influences of thyroid gland, Hashimoto thyroiditis, serum thyroglobulin (Tg) and anti-TG antibody on the diagnostic performance of FNA-Tg are controversial. Patients & methods: We retrospectively collected the FNA-Tg results of 176 preoperative or postoperative patients (356 lymph nodes) who finally were diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. The diagnostic abilities of FNA-Tg were evaluated and compared under different circumstances. Results: The diagnostic performance of FNA-Tg was uninfluenced irrespective of the status of thyroid gland or serum anti-TG antibody. However, high serum Tg was positively correlated with FNA-Tg (Exp(B) = 1.57; 95% CI: 1.209–2.309; p = 0.001). Conclusion: FNA-Tg was an excellent diagnostic tool, but it should be interpreted with caution only if serum Tg is higher than 10 ng/ml.

Keywords::

• anti-thyroglobulin antibody
• Hashimoto thyroiditis
• lymph node metastases
• papillary thyroid cancer
• thyroglobulin
• thyroglobulin washout of fine needle aspiration

Author contributions

X Jiang was responsible for the study conception and design. Jiahui Wang and W Zhou were responsible for the acquisition of data. J Wang, G Xiao and Y Hu were responsible for data analysis, as well as drafting and revision of the manuscript.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained institutional review board approval from the Ethics Committee of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital (School of Medicine, Zhejiang University) for the research described. In addition, they have obtained verbal and written informed consent from the patients for the inclusion of their medical and treatment history within this work.