《Application of Realtime Ultrasound Elastography in Diagnosing Benign and Malignant Thyroid Solid Nodules》.pdfVIP

124 Cancer Bio Med 2012; 9: 124-127 doi: 10.3969/j. issn. 2095-3941. 2012. 02. 008 Wang et al. Ultrasound Elastography in Diagnosis of Thyroid Nodules Original Article Application of Real-time Ultrasound Elastography in Diagnosing Benign and Malignant Thyroid Solid Nodules Hai-ling Wang, Sheng Zhang, Xiao-jie Xin, Li-hui Zhao, Chun-xiang Li, Jia-li Mu, Xue-qing Wei Department of Ultrasonographic Diagnosis and Therapy, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin 300060, China ABSTRACT Objective Real-time ultrasound elastography (US-E) is a helpful tool in diagnosing thyroid nodules. This study aims to evaluate thyroid solid nodules, to establish the accuracy of US-E in providing information on the nature of these nodules, and to assess the clinical value of elasticity scores (ES) and strain ratio (SR) in differentiating thyroid solid nodules and to explore its distribution characteristics using pathological analysis as reference. Methods Traditional ultrasonography and US-E were performed on 131 thyroid solid nodules (99 benign ones and 32 malignant ones) in 120 patients (78 females and 41 males). Three radiologists evaluated the nodules based on a four-degree elasticity scoring system. The nodules were classified according to the ES as soft (ES 1-2) or hard (ES 3-4). The SR was calculated online. Results The sensitivity and specificity of the ES for thyroid cancer diagnosis were 78% and 80%, respectively. SR values ≥ 2.9 used as a standard to distinguish benign from malignant nodules had a sensitivity of 87% and a specificity of 92%. The SR of the benign lesions was 1.64±1.37, which was significantly different from that of malignant lesions, which was 4.96±2.13 (P0.01). Conclusions Both the ES