Thyroglobulin Measurement in the Washout of Fine Needle Aspirates for the Diagnosis of Suspicious Cervical Lymph Nodes

Salvatore Sorrenti^1†, Salvatore Ulisse^1†, Cira Di Gioia², Valeria Ascoli², Daniela Bosco², Emma Rullo², Antonio Catania¹, Francesco Tartaglia¹, Giovanni Carbotta¹, Nicola Cornacchini³, Stefano Arcieri¹, Domenico Mascagni¹, Maria Ida Amabile¹, Laura Giacomelli¹, Alessio Metere¹, Daniele Pironi¹, Massimo Vergine¹, Massimo Monti¹ & Enke Baldini^1*

¹Dept of Surgical Sciences, “Sapienza” Univ. of Rome, Italy
²Department of Radiological, Oncological and Anatomo-Pathological Sciences, “Sapienza” Univ. of Rome, Italy
³Dept of Surgery, S. Kliment Ohridski University, Sofia, Bulgaria
^† The first two authors provided an equal contribution.

Dr. Enke Baldini, Dept of Surgical Sciences, “Sapienza” Univ. of Rome, Italy.

Keywords: Thyroid Cancer; Cervical Lymph Node; Metastasis; Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology; Cytological Diagnosis; Thyroglobulin Protein Assay

Abstract

Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) for suspicious cervical lymph nodes (CLN) is the gold standard technique for the identification of metastases from differentiated thyroid carcinomas. Thyroglobulin protein (Tgp) assay in the washout of needles employed for FNA biopsies (FNAB) has been reported to refine and support FNAC performances, especially in cases of inadequate sampling or cystic lymph nodes. In the present work, we evaluated the usefulness of routine measurement of Tgp in the FNAB washout of suspicious cervical lymph nodes (CLN), and its ability to increase the FNAC accuracy in the diagnosis of metastatic CLN.

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