Thyroid nodules with suspicious ultrasound findings: the role of ultrasound-guided core needle biopsy

The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of core needle biopsy (CNB) in the diagnosis of sonographically suspicious thyroid nodules. We retrospectively reviewed 997 patients with sonographically suspicious thyroid nodules who underwent CNB using pathological results as gold standard. In our result, the accuracy of CNB was 98.0%, and its area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.981. The inconclusive result was in 22 (6.0%) of CNBs. Therefore, CNB demonstrates high rates of conclusive and accurate diagnosis in sonographically suspicious thyroid nodules, which may reduce repeat fine needle aspiration, diagnostic surgery, and unnecessary follow-up.