Koperek O, Asari R, Niederle B & Kaserer K (2011) Histopathology 58, 919–924 Desmoplastic stromal reaction in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma Aims: To evaluate the value of a desmoplastic stromal reaction (desmoplasia) as an indicator of metastasis in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma. Methods and results: One hundred and nine cases of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma from the pathological archive of the Medical University of Vienna, Austria were analysed for the presence of desmoplasia in relation to other morphological and clinicopathological parameters. Eighty-one of 109 papillary microcarcinomas showed a desmoplastic stromal reaction. The desmoplasia was significantly associated with lymph node metastases (P = 0.001) and tumour diameter (P