ABSTRACT
Background: Thyroid disorders are one of the most common endocrine disorders. Thyroid disorders are highly prevalent in the Saudi population. There are many approaches to treat thyroid disorders, varying from conservative to surgical, depending on the severity of each condition. There are many indications for surgical management of thyroid diseases, including carcinoma, hyperthyroidism, and local compression symptoms. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study included subjects operated upon for a thyroid disorder over 6 years period in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Results: The clinical manifestations and postoperative characteristics of the patients are given in Table 2. It can be observed that the most dominant clinical presentation was neck mass (76.4%), while the most common indication of surgery was the suspicion of cancer (54.5%). Furthermore, the most common histopathology was papillary thyroid cancer (41.8%), whereas the most common complication after the surgery was hypocalcemia (9.1%). Likewise, total thyroidectomy was the most commonly sought surgical intervention (70.9%). Additionally, Bethesda class III constitutes 35.1%, while Bethesda class II constitutes 29.7%. Conclusion: Suspicion of cancer was the most prominent indication for surgical intervention. The most prevalent postoperative complications were hypocalcemia. Furthermore, papillary thyroid carcinoma was the most common histological findings, which raises several questions since it contrasts with previous studies done in Saudi Arabia. We believe that the number of thyroid procedures in our region is underreported, and more research is needed to validate this.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Thyroid nodules are an important health problem in children and adolescents. They possess a higher risk of malignancy in comparison to adults. This fact forms a great dilemma for clinicians. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of shear wave elastography (SWE) as a non-invasive technique in the characterization of thyroid nodules in children and adolescents. METHODS: This prospective study included 56 patients with thyroid nodules. All the patients underwent clinical assessment, laboratory investigations, ultrasound, and Doppler examination, followed by an SWE assessment. Statistical analysis was performed and the best cut-off value to differentiate benign from malignant nodules was determined using the ROC curve and AUC. RESULTS: Seventy-two nodules were detected in the examined patients (ages ranged from 11 to 19 years, with mean age of 14.89 ± 2.3 years). Fifty-eight nodules (80.6%) were benign, and fourteen nodules (19.4%) were malignant (histopathologically proved). Highly suspicious criteria for prediction of malignancy by ultrasound and Doppler were hypoechoic echopattern, internal or internal and peripheral vascularity, microcalcifications, taller-than-wide dimensions, irregular outlines, and absence of halo (p < 0.05). The diagnostic performance for their summation was 70.69% sensitivity, 82.8% specificity, 80.45% accuracy, a 63.79% positive predictive value (PPV), and 87.9% negative predictive values (NPV). Regarding SWE, our results showed that 42.2 kPa was the best cut-off value, with AUC = 0.921 to differentiate malignant from benign nodules; the diagnostic performance was 85.71% sensitivity, 94.83% specificity, 93.06% accuracy, 76.9% PPV, and 93.2% NPV. CONCLUSION: Shear wave elastography is a non-invasive technique that can assist in the diagnosis of malignant thyroid nodules among children and adolescents.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Thyroid diseases are common yet serious in children that lead to many metabolic and growth disorders; the most common among these are diffuse thyroid diseases (DTD). This study aimed to evaluate the reliability of shear wave elastography (SWE) to differentiate and diagnose DTD from normal thyroid tissue. METHOD: This prospective study included normal participants and patients with DTD. The subjects were assessed by clinical evaluation, laboratory investigation, conventional ultrasound, and Doppler examination, followed by SWE assessments. Statistical analysis was performed using the t-test and one-way ANOVA test, as appropriate. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to determine the best cutoff values to differentiate healthy participants from those with DTD and to differentiate between different types of DTD. RESULTS: The study included 74 patients with DTD and 20 healthy participants. The mean SWE values were 10.9 ± 1.78, 12.8 ± 2.1, 15.31 ± 2.95, and 17.26 ± 4.2 kPa for the normal participants and for patients with simple goiter, Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), or Grave's disease (GD), respectively. Statistically significant differences were noted between the mean SWE of the normal participants and that of patients with DTD, as well as between the mean SWE of patients with different types of DTD (P < 0.05). The best SWE cutoff values to differentiate a normal thyroid from DTD, HT from GD, HT from simple goiter, and GD from simple goiter were 12.8, 17.8, 13.4, and 13.9 kPa, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: SWE is a reliable diagnostic tool for differentiating normal thyroid tissue from DTD, as well as for differentiating between different types of DTD.
