Abstract
Fine needle aspirates of the histologically confirmed 48cases of papillary carcinoma, 5 cases of non-papillary carcinoma and 47 cases of benign nodules of thyroid gland were microscopically examined. In each specimen, 10 random high power fields, including cellular groups, were carefully checked. The numbers of cells with intranuclear inclusions and/or nuclear grooves, as well as psammoma bodies were counted, and a semi-quantitative estimate of their frequency was observed. Intranuclear inclusions were found in 35 (72.9%) out of 48 cases of papillary carcinoma. But, they were not found in non-papillary carcinoma or benign nodules. Nuclear grooves were observed in all 48 cases of papillary carcinoma, 4 (80%) out of 5 cases of non-papillary carcinoma and 36 (76.6%) out of 47 cases of benign nodules. When cases in which 10 or more nuclear grooves were found in the 10 high power fields of each specimen selected, 24 (50%) out of 48 cases of papillary carcinoma contained nuclear grooves. Whereas, 4 (8.5%) out of 47 cases of benign nodules contained nuclear grooves. In papillary carcinoma of 13 cases with the absence of intranuclear inclusion, 4 cases contained nuclear grooves. In these cases, the presence of nuclear grooves was considered to be useful for cytologic diagnosis of papillaly carcinoma. Intranuclear inclusions appear to be more valuable than nuclear grooves on cytologic preparation of papillary carcinoma. When nuclear grooves are seen in abundance on a cytologic specimen, they can be considered to be a useful criterion for the diagnosis of papillary carcinoma. However, when only a few nuclear grooves are seen, this significance is markedly diminished. Occurence of psammoma body was low in this series.
