Value of calcium-based quantitative spectral CT imaging in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules / 实用放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the value of calcium-based quantitative spectral CT imaging in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.Methods Totally 82 patients with 98 thyroid nodules confirmed by pathology underwent unenhanced and dual-phase enhanced spectral CT scans before operation.Thyroid nodules were divided into malignant group (61 nodules) and benign group (37 nodules),according to histopathologic results.Besides,contralateral normal thyroid tissue of 50 patients was selected as normal group.The calcium concentration of malignant,benign and normal group in non-enhanced scanning was analysed.The optimal threshold to predict malignancy and the corresponding diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were obtained by ROC curve.Results The calcium concentrations for malignant, benign and normal group in non-enhanced scanning were (5.52±2.72) mg/cm3, (10.72±4.68) mg/cm3 and (24.66±7.58) mg/cm3 respectively.There were significant differences statistically in any two groups (P<0.001).For malignant thyroid nodules, the best diagnostic threshold of calcium concentration was 6.065 mg/cm3,and the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 65.6% and 91.9% respectively.Conclusion Spectral CT imaging can quantitatively assess the calcium concentration of thyroid nodules,which provides promising quantitative approach for distinguishing malignant thyroid nodules from benign nodules.