Diagnostic values of BRAFV600E mutation analysis and Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytopathology in thyroid nodules with TIRADS 4 and 5 / 中华耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To evaluate the diagnostic efficacies of BRAFV600E testing and Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytopathology (BSRTC) in thyroid nodules with thyroid imaging reporting and data system (TIRADS) category 4 and 5.@*Methods@#A total of 187 thyroid nodules in 187 patients underwent the examinations of ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and BRAFV600E mutation were analyzed retrospectively. Receive operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to investigate the diagnostic values of both methods and the clinical application of BRAFV600E combined with BSRTC was evaluated. SPSS17.0 software was used to analyze the data.@*Results@#Among 187 thyroid nodules, 123 were malignant nodules confirmed with histopathological examination and 64 benign nodules determined by FNAC, histopathological examination, or long-term follow-up. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of BRAFV600E test were better than those of BSRTC [69.1%, 98.4%, 98.8%, 62.4%(χ2=77.3, P=0.000) vs 62.6%, 93.8%, 95.1%, 56.6%(χ2=54.4, P=0.000)]. While the sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of the combined test of BRAFV600E and BSRTC for diagnosis of malignant thyroid nodules were 87.8%, 92.2%, 95.6%, 79.7%(χ2=112.6, P=0.000), respectively. The area under the ROC curve for the combined test was higher than that for each of tests (0.900 vs 0.858 or 0.838).@*Conclusions@#The combined test of BRAFV600E mutation and BSRTC has a higher diagnostic efficacy for malignant thyroid nodules compared with BRAFV600E mutation or BSRTC alone.