Elastography in the evaluation of thyroid nodules
Main Article Content
Keywords
Thyroid Gland, Thyroid Nodule, Elasticity Imaging Techniques
Abstract
Background: Thyroid nodules are a very common pathology in clinical practice and in imaging studies. Autopsy results indicate a 50% prevalence of thyroid nodules greater than 1 cm in patients with no clinical symptomatology. The goal is to evaluate the accuracy of elastography in the evaluation of thyroid nodules with suspicion of malignancy by comparing the results obtained in qualitative and semi-quantitative elastography with the cytopathological study obtained by BAAF of thyroid nodules and The TI-RADS system.
Methods: We included male or female patients over 18 years old, entitled to IMSS, with diagnosis of one or more thyroid nodules, sent to the ultrasound service for FNA and histopathological report at the end of the study. In the statistical analysis, values of sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), positive predictive value (PPV) were obtained.
Results: The results showed that the qualitative elastography by the Asteria Score presents a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 53%, PPV of 36% and NPV of 92% , for the semiquantitative elastography a sensitivity of 40%, specificity of 87%, PPV of 50% and NPV of 82%.
Conclusions: The elastography in its qualitative and semicuantitative mode are useful to help determine the possibility of malignancy of thyroid nodules as an additional element to ultrasound, but it does not replace the citopathologic result or other diagnostic tests, so it should not be taken as a single test. Additionally the high result of NPV is useful to dismiss the possibility of malignancy.
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