Clinico-pathological Characteristics of Incidental Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma

Abstract

More than ten microscopic variants of PTC have been documented. The most common variant is classical type PTC, which may also be referred to as typical PTC or usual type PTC. The majority of PTCs are of the classical type. Diagnosis is based on typical nuclear features, which should be present in tumour cells. Papillary structures are not present in all tumours. Psammona bodies are sometimes present. Surgically treated patients between January 2017 and December 2020 were retrospectively analysed. The study involved 329 surgical patients with benign disease of the thyroid, without any diagnosis of preoperative malignancy. Generally cells with nuclear clearing were arranged around the fibrovascular core in histopathological eaxamination. No lymphovascular invasion was detected in any of the cases. Other histopathological findings accompanying I-PTM were MNG in 7 cases (64%), lymphocytic thyroiditis in 4 cases (36%) and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in 1 case (9%).The mean size of the papillary thyroid foci was 5.7 mms.