Clinical features and ultrasound characteristics of benign and malignant thyroid nodules / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

The clinical data and ultrasound findings of 185 patients with thyroid nodules undergoing thyroidectomy from June to December 2015 were retrospectively reviewed.Postoperative pathology confirmed malignant thyroid nodules in 86 cases and benign nodules in 99 cases.The ultrasonographic findings showed that there were significant differences in obscure boundary [51％ (44/86) vs.16％ (16/99)],hypoecho [(95％ (82/86) vs.27％ (27/99)],internal micro-calcification [63％ (54/86) vs.21％ (21/99)] and lymph node enlargement [33％ (28/86) vs.5％ (5/99)] between malignant and benign nodules (all P ＜ 0.05).The sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value,negative predictive value and accuracy of thyroid imaging reporting and data system (TI-RADS) in differentiation of malignant and benign thyroid nodules were 77％ (66/86),86％ (85/99),83％ (66/80),81％ (85/105) and 82％ (151/185),respectively.The positive rates of thyroid globulin antibody(TGAb) and thyroid peroxydase antibody (TPO-Ab) in malignant nodules [6％ (5/79) and 25％ (20/79)] were significantly higher than those in benign nodules [0 (0/94) and 12％ (11/94)] (both P ＜0.05).There was no significant difference in free T3 (FT3),free T4 (FT4) and TSH between the two groups [(4.91-± 0.78) vs.(4.93-± 1.98) pmol/L,(13.57 ±2.22) vs.(13.58 ±2.17)pmol/Land(1.78±1.40) vs.(1.88±2.36)mU/L] (allP＞0.05).The results indicate that TI-RADS grading and thyroid immunity index are valuable for differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules.