ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Macrofollicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is an uncommon, recently described thyroid tumor. By frozen section it can be confused easily with goiter or macrofollicular adenoma. CASE: A 41-year-old female presented with a huge mass in the right thyroid lobe, cold on scintigraphy. By fine needle aspiration fluid was obtained. Smears of the sediment of the fluid showed epithelial cells with morphologic features diagnostic of PTC. Frozen section diagnosis was benign. CONCLUSION: This is the first reported case of macrofollicular variant of PTC diagnosed preoperatively by cytology. In our case the cytology was similar to that of cystic PTC.
Subject(s)
Adenocarcinoma, Follicular/diagnosis , Adenocarcinoma, Follicular/pathology , Carcinoma, Papillary/diagnosis , Carcinoma, Papillary/pathology , Thyroid Neoplasms/diagnosis , Thyroid Neoplasms/pathology , Adenocarcinoma, Follicular/surgery , Adult , Biopsy, Needle , Carcinoma, Papillary/surgery , Diagnosis, Differential , False Negative Reactions , Female , Frozen Sections , HumansABSTRACT
A papillary carcinoma of the thyroid characterized by numerous spindle-shaped tumor cells in fine needle aspiration (FNA) smears is reported. The oval nuclei of the spindle cells, arranged in monolayered sheets, occasionally showed "rhythmic," palisaded patterns. Comparative study of cytology and histology of this tumor revealed that the spindle cells observed in FNA smears originated in the epithelium covering the edematous neoplastic papillae.