Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2010) 22 P755

ECE2010 Poster Presentations Thyroid (122 abstracts)

Realtime elastography for the differentiation of benign and malignant thyroid nodules: a meta-analysis

Joerg Bojunga , Eva Herrmann , Stefan Zeuzem & Mireen Friedrich-Rust


J.W. Goethe-University Hospital, Frankfurt am Mein, Germany.


Background: Work-up of thyroid nodules remains challenging. Fine needle aspiration (FNA) has been shown to be the most cost–effective way to select patients for surgery with sensitivities of 54–69% and specificities of 60–96% for the detection of malignant lesions. Ultrasound-based Realtime Elastography (RTE) enables the determination of tissue elasticity and has shown promising results for the differentiation of thyroid nodules. A meta-analysis was performed to assess the overall performance of RTE for the differentiation of thyroid nodules.

Methods: Literature databases were searched. Inclusion criteria were: evaluation of RTE, cytology (FNA) or histology (surgery) as reference method, assessment of sensitivity and specificity of RTE. The meta-analysis was performed using the DerSimonian and Laird Random Effect estimator was used to combine results between the selected studies.

Results: Eight studies with overall 639 thyroid nodules were included in the analysis. Mean sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of malignant thyroid nodules were 92% (CI (88; 96), and 96% (CI (94; 97)), respectively (s. Figure). A significant heterogeneity was found for specificity of the different studies.

Discussion: RTE can be used with high sensitivity and specificity in the work-up of thyroid nodules and might be a useful method in addition to or even instead of FNA to select patients for surgery.

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