Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Conventional ultrasound remains the most used imaging evaluation in case of a thyroid nodule.

Material, method: This prospective study included 69 patients (107 nodules). Conventional and Doppler ultrasound was performed with a HITACHI EUB 7500 HV machine with 6–13 MHz variable frequency linear probe, with Doppler software. All patients underwent surgery after complete evaluation.Postsurgical histopathological exam was performed. We analyses at each nodule the following parameters: echogenity, halo sign, margins, shape, homogeneity; presence of calcification, color flow Doppler pattern.

Results: We diagnosed 11 cancer nodules: 1 (0.93%) huge nodule with follicular cancer, 10 cases with papillary carcinoma (9.45%).

The most predictive parameters, appreciate by the AUC under ROC curve in descendant order were: inhomogeneity (0.7985), dominant intranodular vessel (0.789), absent halo sign (0.7581), intranodular vascularization (0.7206), nodule taller than wide (0.712).

All the diagnostic parameters are presented in Table 1.

Conclusion: In cases of thyroid nodules, inomogeneity, presence of intranpdular doppler signal, absence of halo and intranpdular calcifications are the most predictive ultrasound parameters in diagnosis of suspect thyroid nodules.

Diagnostic value of different ultrasound parameters in identifying malignancy

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector