Clinical investigation of enlarged, local lymph nodes after surgery for papillary thyroid carcinoma is problematic ... by fine-needle aspiration (FNA) for cytology. The authors report that ...

To compare the sensitivity of FNA for different histologic tumor types, the sensitivity for papillary carcinoma was chosen ... Coexistent benign thyroid disease in the surgical specimen had ...

FNA is preferred over thyroid scan or ultrasonography as the initial diagnostic test for thyroid nodules. However, a previous ultrasound may aid the physician performing the aspiration.