Evaluation of High-Resolution Melting Method As A Powerful Technique For the Detection of Brafv600e Mutation in Fna Samples in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

Background and aim: papillary thyroid carcinoma (ptc) is the commonest form of thyroid malignancy, and braf v600e mutation is the most frequent genetic alteration with a high specificity for this malignancy. fine-needle aspiration (fna) is currently the most sensitive and predominant procedure for pre-surgical diagnosis of thyroid malignancies. there are several limitations for this method necessitating the development of molecular testing.this study aimed to ascertain the reliability of hrm technique, as a screening method for the detection of braf v600e mutation in cytological samples. methods: in total, 92 fna slides which were cytologically diagnosed and classified according to the bethesda category were analyzed by hrm technique and the resultant braf v600e mutation was compared with sanger sequencing results. statistical analysis was also performed to investigate the prevalence of braf v600e mutation in different cytological groups and to examine the significance of the relationship between braf v600e mutation and clinicopathologic symptoms through t- and chi-square tests. results: the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of hrm technique were found to be 92.6%, 90.9% and 94.7%, respectively. the prevalence of braf+ in samples classified as benign, atypia of undetermined significance (aus), suspicious for malignancy, and malignant were 3.2%, 16.7%, 69.5%, and 87.5%, respectively. furthermore, no significant relationship was observed between braf v600e and clinicopathological symptoms. conclusion: the results of this study confirmed hrm as an accurate, quick, and uncomplicated method for checking the status of braf v600e mutation on the fna slides for cytological evaluations, especially during the early stages of ptc. hrm has undoubtedly predictive values that may affect the clinical diagnosis and future therapeutic decisions.