, Jung Hwan Baek2
1Department of Hospital Pathology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
2Department of Radiology and Research Institute of Radiology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Copyright © 2017 Korean Endocrine Society
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.
| Item | Consensus statement and recommendations |
|---|---|
| Indication of CNB | |
| R1 | CNB could be alternative to FNA in evaluation of thyroid nodules in selected cases |
| Device and procedure of CNB | |
| R2 | Modern CNB devices, particularly 18–21-gauge, spring-activated, core needles, are recommended for procedure |
| R3 | Patients with bleeding tendency, such as those taking anticoagulation medications or with disorders affecting coagulation cascade, should be thoroughly evaluated and any problems corrected before CNB |
| R4A | CNB should be performed by experienced operators under US guidance |
| R4B | Manual compression of biopsy site should be performed immediately after procedure for 20 to 30 minutes |
| Utility of CNB as a second-line alternative tool when previous FNA has indeterminate result | |
| R5 | CNB can be used as alternative to FNA for thyroid nodules with non-diagnostic cytology in previous FNA |
| R6 | CNB may be used as alternative to FNA for thyroid nodules with atypia (follicular lesion) of undetermined significance in previous FNA |
| R7A | CNB has advantages to differentiate encapsulated follicular neoplasm from non-neoplastic nodule |
| R7B | CNB cannot differentiate follicular thyroid carcinoma from follicular adenoma |
| R8 | CNB may be used as alternative to FNA for calcified thyroid nodules |
| Utility of CNB as first-line diagnostic tool | |
| R9 | CNB may achieve low rates of non-diagnostic and inconclusive results for initially detected thyroid nodules. However, utility of CNB as first-line diagnostic tool for these nodules is uncertain based on current evidence |
| Utility of CNB for cases of difficult diagnosis | |
| R10A | CNB can be used as alternative to FNA in patients with clinical and radiological features of uncommon malignancies (anaplastic carcinoma, lymphoma, or medullary carcinoma) |
| R10B | CNB can be used as alternative to FNA for thyroid nodules with US-cytology discordance in previous FNA |
| Complications of CNB | |
| R11 | CNB is safe, well-tolerated, and associated with low incidence of complications when performed by experienced operators |
| Item | Diagnostic category |
|---|---|
| I | Nondiagnostic or unsatisfactory |
| Normal thyroid tissue only | |
| Extrathyroid tissue only (e.g., skeletal muscle, mature adipose tissue) | |
| A virtually acellular specimen | |
| Acellular/paucicellular fibrotic nodule | |
| Blood clot only | |
| Other | |
| II | Benign lesion |
| Benign follicular nodule or consistent with a benign follicular nodule | |
| Hashimoto's thyroiditis | |
| Granulomatous (subacute) thyroiditis | |
| Nonthyroidal lesion (e.g., parathyroid lesions, benign neurogenic tumors, benign lymph node) | |
| Other | |
| III | Indeterminate lesion |
| IIIA | Indeterminate follicular lesion with nuclear atypia |
| Follicular proliferative lesions with focal nuclear atypia | |
| Follicular proliferative lesions with equivocal or questionable nuclear atypia | |
| Atypical follicular cells embedded in a fibrotic stroma | |
| IIIB | Indeterminate follicular lesion with architectural atypia |
| Microfollicular proliferative lesion lacking a fibrous capsule or the adjacent nonlesional tissue in the specimen | |
| Solid or trabecular follicular lesion lacking a fibrous capsule or the adjacent nonlesional tissue in the specimen | |
| Macrofollicular proliferative lesion with a fibrous capsule | |
| Hürthle cell proliferative lesion lacking a fibrous capsule or the adjacent nonlesional tissue in the specimen | |
| IIIC | Other indeterminate lesions |
| IV | Follicular neoplasm or suspicious for a follicular neoplasm |
| IVA | Follicular neoplasm with nuclear atypia |
| IVB | Follicular neoplasm with architectural atypia |
| Microfollicular proliferative lesion with a fibrous capsule | |
| Mixed microfollicular and normofollicular proliferative lesion with a fibrous capsule | |
| Solid/trabecular follicular proliferative lesion with a fibrous capsule | |
| IVC | Follicular neoplasm, Hürthle cell type |
| Hürthle cell proliferative lesion with a fibrous capsule | |
| V | Suspicious for malignancy |
| Suspicious for papillary carcinoma, medullary carcinoma, poorly differentiated carcinoma, metastatic carcinoma, lymphoma, etc. | |
| VI | Malignant |
| Papillary thyroid carcinoma, poorly differentiated carcinoma, undifferentiated (anaplastic carcinoma), medullary thyroid carcinoma, lymphoma, metastatic carcinoma, etc. |
CNB, core needle biopsy; FNA, fine-needle aspiration; US, ultrasound.