ABSTRACT
The study included 197 thyroid nodules which were confirmed by fine-needle aspiration cytology or histopathologic examination. All nodules were graded with malignancy risk stratification of thyroids nodule accordingto the 2015 American Thyroid Association(ATA)management guidelines. Both color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI) and superb microvascular imaging(SMI) were used to classify blood flows of thyroid nodules according to Adler's grading criteria. Morphologic and distribution features of blood flow were also observed by monochrome (mSMI). The optimal threshold drawing from ROC curve and diagnostic efficacy of single and combinative modality were calculated. The results showed that mSMI was more sensitive to detect blood flow of thyroid nodules than other Doppler techniques(P<0.01). Microvascular morphologic features between benign and malignant thyroid nodules were significantly different(P<0.01). The area under ROC curves of ATA,mSMI,and ATA+mSMI were 0.745, 0.740,and 0.834,respectively,suggesting that the diagnostic performance of ATA+mSMI is superior to that of ATA or mSMI alone. There was no significant deference in the sensitivity among ATA, mSMI, and ATA+mSMI (P>0.05). But the specficity and accuracy of combinative modality ATA+mSMI was significantly higher than that of ATA or mSMI alone(P<0.05).
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the value of combination of thyroid imaging reporting and data system (TI-RADS) and enhanced flow (e-Flow) in the qualitative diagnosis of thyroid nodules; and to compare the diagnostic efficiency between e-Flow and color doppler flow imaging (CDFI.@*METHOD@#The study chose 133 patients with 179 nodules (127 benign, 52 malignant nodules) who had per-operative ultrasound examination of their thyroid using grey-scale ultrasound, CDFI, e-Flow, and their noudles were graded by TI-RADS. Then the ultrasound diagnostic value were compared with their surgical pathology results by TI-RADS; TI-RADS and CDFI; TI-RADS and e-Flow, and diagnostic efficiency between e-Flow and CDFI were compared.@*RESULT@#The results revealed that combination of TI-RADS and e-Flow had a higher sensitivity (94.23%, P < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between TI-RADS and the combination of TI-RADS and CDFI. Likewise, there was no significant difference between the combination of TI-RADS and e-Flow and the combination of TI-RADS and CDFI. The e-Flow showed a higher sensitivity, specificity and accuracy compare to the CDFI.@*CONCLUSION@#Combining e-Flow and TI-RADS could improve the sensitivity in qualitative diagnosis of thyroid nodules. Also, e-Flow has a better diagnostic efficiency of thyroid nodules.