International Comparison Study of Thyroid Reporting Systems

Abstract

Once upon a time there was “free for all” thyroid reporting system. Each institution and each cytopathologist used an own terminology to describe the nature of a thyroid aspiration. In recent years, with the advent of national reporting systems, thyroid cytopathological reports are standardized, reproducible, and understandable by all stakeholders who gravitate around the problems of thyroid proliferation. It becomes easier to compare casuistic between institutions and to compare the accuracy of ancillary techniques and molecular test applied to thyroid fine-needle aspiration cytology. The most widespread reporting systems have been established in the United States, England, Italy, Japan, and Australia. Some of them are five-tiered and other six-tiered. Efforts have been done in the revised version of some of these reporting systems to homogenize diagnostic categories that have been differently named, in particular in the indeterminate categories, in order to make more super imposable each system.