Value of virtual touch tissue imaging in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the value of virtual touch tissue imaging (VTI) of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.Methods VTI features of 77 histologically proven thyroid nodules in 74 patients were analyzed and the VTI features were divided into 6 grades.The higher grade represented higher tissue stiffness.Differences in VTI grade between benign and malignant lesions were analyzed by receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve,and the sensitivity,specificity and accuracy were calculated.Results 77 pathologically proven thyroid nodules included 61 benign and 16 malignant lesions.VTI images classification included 0 in grade Ⅰ,1 ingrade Ⅱ,1 in grade Ⅲ,9 in grade Ⅳ,3 in grade Ⅴ and 2 in grade Ⅵ for malignant diseases ; and included 18 in grade Ⅰ,28 in grade Ⅱ,10 in grade Ⅲ,1 in grade Ⅳ,2 in grade Ⅴ and 2 in grade Ⅵ for benign diseases.The best diagnostic point of VTI-grade was grade Ⅳ.When VTI-grade Ⅳ or greater was used as the diagnostic criterium for malignancy,the sensitivity,specificity and accuracy rate in differentiation between benign and malignant thyroid nodules were 87.50％,91.80％ and 90.9(％ respectively.Conclusions VTI is useful in the differential diagnosis between benign and malignant thyroid nodules.