Pediatric Thyroid FNA

Abstract

Among the pediatric and adolescent population, thyroid nodules are uncommon with an incidence of 1–2 % but with a much higher risk of malignancy (14–40 %), when compared to that of adult population. Recent studies have shown that FNA, rather than diagnostic lobectomy, should be the initial diagnostic tool of choice for managing thyroid nodule in the pediatric population. Based on TBSRTC, thyroid FNA demonstrated a sensitivity and specificity of 94 % and 81 %, respectively, for evaluating thyroid nodules in the pediatric population. The majority of the malignancies encountered in the pediatric population are papillary thyroid carcinoma. Although the authors did not observe an increase in the frequency of the diagnostic category FLUS/AUS, a higher frequency of FLUS/AUS (35 %) has been reported in the literature due partly to the reluctance to diagnose malignancy in a young patient and partly to the low cellularity secondary to difficulty in sampling of these lesions. The use of molecular testing for equivocal thyroid FNA in pediatric population has not been extensively investigated.