AN ANALYSIS OF FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION BIOPSY OF THE THYROID IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) has proven safe and efficacious i n the evaluation nodular thyroid disease in adults. Only one study has evaluated FNAB exclusively in children, for whom the prevalence of th yroid nodules and the probability of malignancy are different. In addi tion. no study has compared the accuracy of FNAB with that of other di agnostic procedures in the evaluation of thyroid nodules in children. The authors report the results of FNAB in 18 children evaluated for th yroid nodules between 1985 and 1994. The overall accuracy of FNAB was similar to that of other diagnostic procedures, including thyroid scin tiscan and ultrasonography, but none of these was sufficiently accurat e to be used as the sole predictor of malignancy. There were three fal se-negative biopsy results; this limited the overall accuracy and sugg ests that children with negative FNAB results should be monitored caut iously.