Ultrasonic diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules and its clinical value

Abstract

Objective To investigate the value of ultrasonography in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules and its characteristics. Methods From January to December 2015 in Maternal and Child Health Care Hoapital of Haikou City, one hundred and thirty-two cases of thyroid nodules pathologically confirmed (141 nodules) of two-dimensional ultrasound data were analyzed by pathology as the gold standard, with 61 benign nodules and 80 malignant nodules. The two groups were compared of image features, and calculated the diagnosis of grey ultrasonography in differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules. Results Malignant thyroid nodules and thyroid ultrasound morphology of benign nodules, the boundary is clear, whether the rules of capsule integrity, aspect ratio, internal echo, calcification, rear echo differences were statistically significant (χ2=6.024, 15.095, 18.116, 14.046, 9.679, 36.598, 18.351, P=0.014, <0.001, <0.001, <0.001, 0.002, <0.001, <0.001); the sensitivity of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in differential diagnosis of malignant nodules and benign nodules was 68.75%, the specificity was 77.05%, the misdiagnosis rate was 31.25%, and the diagnositic error rate was 22.95%. Conclusion Ultrasonography has certain clinical value in differential diagnosis of thyroid benign and malignant nodules as simple clinical method, but the rate of misdiagnosis and diagnostic error rate is high. Key words: Ultrasonography; Thyroid nodule; Diagnosis, differential