Study the feasibility of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules
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Abstract
SUMMARY
Purpose: To assess the feasibility of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging (VTQ and VTI) for differentiation of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.
Materials and methods: A total of 130 thyroid nodules underwent conventional ultrasound, including Color Doppler ultrasound using a 7.5MHz linear transducer; ARFI imaging was performed at 4MHz using Siemens Acuson S2000 B-mode- ARFI combination transducer; and FNAC (Fine needle aspiration cytology) assessment of thyroid nodule as reference criteria.
Results: 130 nodules were analysed. 103 nodules were benign, 23 nodules were malignant and 4 follicular lesions. The median velocity of ARFI imaging in the normal nodule-free thyroid gland, as well as benign and malignant thyroid nodules was 1.41m/s (range 0.84 - 3m/s); 2.15m/s (range 0.8 - 4.04m/s) and 3.2m/s (range 0.9 - 9.22m/s), respectively. At cut-off 2.16m/s, a sensibility of 79.4% and specificity of 53.7% of VTQ could be achieved (AUROC = 0.731). The difference between VTQ of normal thyroid tissue and thyroid nodule (benign, malignant) has the sensibility of 79.5% and specificity of 51% at the cut-off of 0.63 (AUROC = 0.72). A significant difference was found between VTI on the one hand and benign or malignant thyroid nodules on the other hand, a = 0.001.
Conclusions: VTQ and VTI of ARFI can be useful in the assessment of benign and malignant thyroid nodules. These novel quantitative and qualitative elastography method should be combined to give a more reliable result. Further investigations are needed to compare these baseline findings in thyroid nodules in healthy thyroid tissue with those in thyroid diffuse diseases.
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