Clinical value of ultrasound combined with thyroglobulin detection in preoperative N staging of thyroid cancer / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the value of ultrasound combined with thyroglobulin (Tg) in preoperative N staging of thyroid carcinoma.Methods:The clinical data of 1 138 patients with thyroid carcinoma in the Cancer Hospital of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Zhejiang Cancer Hospital) from August 2018 to October 2020, who confirmed by surgery and pathology were analyzed retrospectively. The 1 138 cases were divided into pN0, pN1a, and pN1b stages. Kappa consistency test was used to analyze the consistency of ultrasound evaluation of N staging and pathological N staging. Pathology result was taken as the gold standard to analyze the correlation between some preoperative serum markers and lymph node metastasis. The ROC curve was used to compare the diagnostic value of ultrasound, Tg, and ultrasound combined with Tg for lymph node metastasis.Results:The preoperative ultrasound assessment of N staging was moderately consistent with pathology(Kappa=0.459, P<0.01). Between pN0 and pN1(pN1a+ pN1b) stages, the differences in free triiodothyronine (fT3), anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) and Tg were statistically significant (all P<0.05). Among the different indicators, only Tg had significant effect on lymph node metastasis ( P<0.01) .The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of Tg in predicting lymph node metastasis of thyroid cancer was 0.679, while the best cut-off value for Tg was 25.245 μg/L. The AUC of only ultrasound and ultrasound combined with Tg were 0.699 and 0.775, respectively. Therefore, combined diagnosis method was better than ultrasound only. Conclusions:Preoperative ultrasound and thyroglobulin has a specific value in evaluating the N staging of thyroid carcinoma. The combination of the two is more valuable in the diagnosis of lymph node metastasis than ultrasound only.