Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2007) 14 P385

ECE2007 Poster Presentations (1) (659 abstracts)

The effect of thyroxine suppression therapy on the diagnostic efficacy of fine needle aspiration biopsy in thyroid nodules

Dimitrios Thomas 1 , Ifigenia Kostoglou-Athanassiou 1 , Emmanouil Vassiliou 1 , Vassilios Liakos 1 , Fotini Chatzimarkou 1 , Anastasios Pappas 1 , Panagiotis Athanassiou 2 & Philippos Kaldrymidis 1


1Department of Endocrinology, Metaxa Hospital, Piraeus, Greece; 2Department of Rheumatology, Asclepeion Hospital, Athens, Greece.


Ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy is used extensively in the diagnostic evaluation of thyroid nodules. However, its diagnostic efficacy is hampered by the presence of non-diagnostic cytology results.

The aim was to study the effect of previous thyroxine suppression therapy on the diagnostic efficacy of fine needle aspiration biopsy in thyroid nodules.

Ultrasound-guided aspiration biopsy was performed in 45 patients, 31 patients on thyroxine suppression therapy and 14 patients without current or previous thyroxine therapy. Ultrasound guidance of the fine needle aspiration biopsy was performed in all patients using the same linear modifier (6–12 MHz) attached in a Toshiba ultrasound apparatus (SSA-550A). Statistical evaluation of the results was performed using Student’s t test and x2 test.

Patient characteristics did not differ significantly between the 2 groups studied. In 13 of 14 (92.9%) patients without current or previous thyroxine therapy the cytology result of fine needle aspiration biopsy was diagnostic, whereas the cytology result of the biopsy was diagnostic in 20 of 31 (64.5%) patients on thyroxine suppression therapy (P=0.046). The diagnostic efficacy was not found to differ according to the duration of thyroxine therapy, possibly due to the small number of patients studied.

It appears that thyroxine suppression therapy in patients with thyroid nodules is related to lower diagnostic efficacy of ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy. Thyroxine suppression therapy may induce changes in thyroid cell structure and size, thus modulating the diagnostic efficacy of fine needle aspiration biopsy in thyroid nodules.

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