Quantitative assessment of real-time elastosonography in thyroid nodules: preliminary clinical research / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the value of quantitative analysis of real-time elastosonography in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules. Methods The elastograms of eight-six patients with 98 thyroid nodules were observed. The strain ratio of each lesion and the averages of those of benignancy and malignancy were calculated. With the ROC curve, the critical point of the strain ratio of different lesions was gotten. All the lesions were confirmed with surgery and pathologic examination. Results The average of strain ratio of benign nodules was 2. 18,while that of malignancy was 8. 48. The strain ratio of benign and malignant lesions were of significant difference statistically (P <0.05). According to ROC curve, the critical point of strain ratio between benign and malignant lesions was 3. 3. Conclusions The quantitative analysis of real-time elastosonography is a newly valuable technique of ultrasonography which is helpful in the differential diagnosis of thyroid lesions.