The value of shear wave elastography in the process of differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodule with calcification / 中华医学超声杂志（电子版）

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the impact of calcification on differential diagnosis of thyroid nodule using shear wave elastography (SWE). Methods One hundred and forty-six patients with thyroid nodules were prospectively enrolled in the study. Ultrasound observations included nodule size, boundary, shape, envelope, internal echotexture, posterior acoustic enhancement, and the relationship with surrounding tissue. According to the presence of internal calciifcation, patients were divided into calciifcation group (groupⅠ) and no calciifcation group (groupⅡ). Real-time shear wave elastography (young′s modulus value) were taken in both groups. Taking surgical pathologic results as the gold standard, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of SWE in diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodule were drawn for two groups respectively. Results In groupⅠ, 25 cases were benign and 38 cases were malignant. The malignant incidence was 60%. Among them the rate of malignant nodules in microcalcification group was 92%(24/26). The incidence of malignant nodules in coarse calcification group was 38%(14/37). The area under the curve (AUC) of SWE in groupⅠwas 0.564. In groupⅡ, 67 cases were benign and malignant had 16 cases. Using 30.43 kPa as the diagnostic point of young′s modulus value, the sensitivity, speciifcity, accuracy and AUC were 93.2%, 81.2%, 84.8%and 0.824. Conclusion In no calciifcation group, SWE is more meaningful in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.