Introduction of minimally invasive diagnostic techniques for thyroid and breast diseases

  With the change of diet and the use of various additives, the incidence of breast diseases is increasing in a cosmopolitan city like Shanghai, making basically every woman aware of the importance of breast checkups and health care. However, another type of disease is quietly spreading in coastal cities, and that is the disease of the thyroid gland, the first major endocrine gland in the human body. Although there is no definite conclusion on whether it is related to the widespread iodine supplementation, the disease spectrum of the population is quietly changing, with breast cancer and thyroid cancer on the rise.  For those with abnormal thyroid and breast manifestations detected by annual physical examination, we would like to introduce two minimally invasive techniques for early diagnosis and differential diagnosis carried out by our nail and breast surgery department.  This technique is an early detection technique for breast lesions and can obtain sufficient tissue for histopathological diagnosis and characterization. It not only confirms the diagnosis, but also allows complete excision of benign lesions and has a therapeutic effect.  This technique also has the advantage of minimally invasive “no pain during surgery and no scar after surgery”.  This technique is an early detection technique for thyroid lesions, and can obtain cells from small thyroid lesions that cannot be reached for pathological diagnosis. It can be used as a screening tool to detect the most common papillary thyroid cancer.  This technique is the most accurate and cost-effective way to evaluate thyroid nodules, with the advantage of minimally invasive “one-stitch cancer detection”. The use of this technique has significantly reduced the rate of thyroid surgery, reducing unnecessary thyroid surgery by 25%. The literature reports only 5% false-negative thyroid puncture cytology results. However, the rate of compliance is closely related to the skill and experience of the puncture operator and cytopathologist.