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Correlation between blood supply of thyroid nodules and elastography score

JIANG Shan, XU Shang-yan, SONG Lin-lin, ZHAN Wei-wei   

  1. Department of Ultrasound, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China
  • Online:2015-05-28 Published:2015-06-04

Abstract:

Objective To evaluate the correlation between the blood supply of thyroid nodules according to the color Doppler ultrasound image and elastography score. Methods A total of 405 thyroid nodules that underwent preoperative ultrasound examinations and had complete postoperative pathological files were selected and their blood supply and elastography scores were evaluated. The blood supply was classified into level Ⅰ to Ⅲ according to the difference of blood flow signal between adjacent normal thyroid tissue and lesion. The elastography scores were from 1 to 4 according to the color that indicated the degree of tissue’s hardness. The correlation between blood supply and elastography score was analyzed after the data was statistically processed. Results Among all selected thyroid nodules, 154 of them were benign nodules and 251of them were malignant nodules. The blood supply was correlated with the elastography score (χ2=63.3, P<0.000 1). The blood supply of benign and malignant nodules was correlated with the elastography score (χ2=15.8, P<0.000 1; χ2=42.0, P<0.000 1). The differences of diagnosis performance of elastography scores of level Ⅰ, Ⅱ, and Ⅲ were not statistically significant after the blood supply was classified (χ2=2.8, P=0.09). Conclusion The blood supply of thyroid nodules is correlated with the elastography score regardless of thyroids are benign or malignant.

Key words: thyroid nodules, color Doppler ultrasound, elastography