Abstract Preoperative accurate assessment of cervical lymph node metastasis (LNM) in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is essential for optimal surgical planning and reducing recurrence risk. Conventional ultrasound has limited sensitivity, and although fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) demonstrates high specificity (up to 97%), its diagnostic performance is compromised by sampling errors, cystic degeneration, and micrometastases, resulting in a false-negative rate of 10%–30%.
