Initial clinical study of virtual touch tissue quantification on Hashimoto's thyroiditis

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Objective To explore the clinical application value of virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) technique in Hashimoto's thyroiditis(HT).Methods Fifty-three patients with HT and 46 health subjects were examed by conventional ultrasonography and VTQ, their shear were velocity (Vs) was measured.A receiver-operating characteristie(ROC) curve was drew according to Vs which can obtain the value of optimal operating point for diagnosing HT.Results The 2D ultrasonic appearance of 53 cases HT were classified into five species, but there was no significant difference in the Vs (F = 0.424, P = 0.790).The area under the ROC curve was 0.976,which showed a high statistical significances(P = 0.000).ROC curve displayed that Vs of 2.53 m/s could be used to diagnose HT,the sensitivity and specificity were 87％and 100％ ,respectively.Fifty-three patients with HT were classified into three groups according to thyroid function, 10 patients with hyperthyroidism, 25 patients with hypothyroidism and 18 patients with euthyroidism.The Vs of HT among the three groups were no significant difference(P = 0.884), but their Vs were all obviously higher than that of normal thyroid Vs(P = 0.000).Conclusions VTQ technique can evaluate the hardness of thyroid and has some help for differential diagnosis of HT. Key words: Ultrasonography ; Hashimoto disease