The value of combined scoring of contrast-enhanced ultrasound and ultrasonic elastography in the differential diagnosis of TI-RADS 4 nodules / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of combined scoring of contrast enhanced ultrasound(CEUS) and ultrasonic elastography(UE) for thyroid imaging reporting and date system(TI RADS) 4 type nodules.Methods The CEUS and UE features of 520 TI RADS 4 type nodules were analyzed retrospectively.The scores of each nodule were evaluated and compared with pathological results and fine-needle aspiration cytology(FNAC).ROC curve was used to compare the diagnostic value of CEUS combined with UE or alone in the differential diagnosis of TI-RADS 4 nodules.Results The sensitivity,specificity,accuracy and area under the curve(AUC) of UE were 82.34％,82.25％,82.31％ and 0.841,respectively,when the cut off value of UE score was 4.The sensitivity,specificity,accuracy and AUC of CEUS were 78.63％,65.68％,74.42％ and 0.750,respectively,when the cut-off value of CEUS score was 4.The sensitivity,specificity,accuracy and AUC of CEUS combined with UE were 92.31 ％,75.74％,86.92％ and 0.885,respectively,when the cut-off value of combined score was 6.The sensitivity and accuracy of combined score were higher than those of two other methods,the difference was statistically significant (all P ＜ 0.05),the AUC of combined score was the biggest,it had the highest diagnostic efficacy.Conclusions Combined scoring of CEUS and UE can improve the accuracy in the differential diagnosis of TI-RADS 4 type nodules.