Usefulness of ultrafast Papanicolaou-stained scrape preparations in intraoperative management of thyroid lesions

The value of intraoperative pathologic consultation (including frozen-secti on [FS]analysis) in surgical management of thyroid lesions has decreased si nce the advent of preoperative fine-needle aspiration. This study presents an intraoperative consultation experience with tumor scrape preparations st ained with Ultrafast: Papanicolaou stain and FS analysis in 93 cases of thy roid nodules and 4 lymph nodes (as part of lymph node dissection due to thy roid malignancy) in 87 patients at the University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, FS was performed in 41 cases (48%), The scrape preparation diagnoses included 71 malignancies (69 papillary and 2 poorly differentiated carcinomas); 1 "s uspicious for carcinoma"; 9 follicular neoplasms; 13 benign (9 "no tumor se en," 1 thyroiditis, 1 hyperplastic nodule, and 2 nodular goiters); and 3 no ndiagnostic cases. The final diagnosis agreed with the scrape diagnosis in 95 cases (98%), FS agreed with the final diagnosis in 29 cases (71%). We su ggest that intraoperative scrape preparations of thyroid nodules stained wi th the Ultrafast Papanicalaou method might be a useful adjunct in the intra operative management of thyroid nodules.