Combined fine-needle aspiration with core needle biopsy for assessing thyroid nodules: a more valuable diagnostic method?

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of combined fine-needle aspiration Methods: FNA and CNB were performed simultaneously on 703 nodules. We compared the proportions of inconclusive results and the diagnostic performance for malignancy among FNA, CNB, and combined FNA/CNB for different nodule sizes. Results: Combined FNA/CNB showed lower proportions of inconclusive results than CNB for all cm (2.0% vs. 5.0 %, P<0.001), nodules ???1.5 cm (3.8% vs. 7.9 %, P 0.001), and nodules 0.001). However, in the subgroup of nodules 1.5 cm, the difference between combined FNA/CNB and CNB was not significant (84.2% vs. Conclusion: Regardless of nodule size, combined FNA/CNB tended to yield lower proportions of inconclusive results than CNB or FNA alone and exhibited higher performance in diagnosing malignancy. The combined FNA/CNB technique may be a more valuable diagnostic method for nodules ???1.5 cm and nodules with a risk of malignancy than CNB and FNA alone.