| Abstract: | To delineate the cytologic presentation of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid, the fine needle aspiration smears were studied from 87 surgically proven cases. Six diagnostically useful findings were identified: papillary fronds, monolayered sheets, tissue fragments, intranuclear cytoplasmic inclusions, psammoma bodies and multinucleated giant cells. From 1,500 smears on "cold" nodules of the thyroid, 6 known false-negative and 4 false-positive diagnoses for papillary carcinoma were made. The estimated accuracy of the fine needle aspirate diagnosis of papillary carcinoma is 94%. |
