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Validating ATA Risk Assessment of Thyroid Nodules
Thyroid; ePub 2017 Jul 18; Tang, Falciglia, et al
The new American Thyroid Association (ATA) sonographic pattern risk assessment for selecting thyroid nodules for ultrasound-guided fine-needle (US-FNA) aspiration was validated in a study involving 206 thyroid nodules.
Investigators prospectively applied the ATA sonographic risk assessment to thyroid nodules selected for US-FNA. Then, for validation purposes, they used 1) the Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology and 2) surgical pathology for the subset undergoing surgical excision. Among the results:
- Using the ATA US pattern risk assessment, nodules were classified as high, intermediate, low, and very low malignancy risk.
- Malignancy rates according to cytology/surgical pathology were 100% (high), 11% (intermediate), 8% (low), and 2% (very low); this correlated closely with ATA malignancy risk estimates.
- ATA US pattern risk assessment also appropriately predicted the proportion of nodules classified as malignant, suspicious, or benign.
- Malignancy rates of surgically excised, cytologically indeterminate nodules followed ATA sonographic risk stratification.
Tang A, Falciglia M, Yang H, Mark J, Steward D. Validation of American Thyroid Association ultrasound risk assessment of thyroid nodules selected for ultrasound fine-needle aspiration. [Published online ahead of print July 18, 2017]. Thyroid. doi:10.1089/thy.2016.0555.