Role of ultrasound, color doppler, elastography and micropure imaging in differentiation between benign and malignant thyroid nodules

To evaluate the role of ultrasound elastography, Doppler and micropure imaging in the assessment of thyroid nodules, using the pathological analysis as the reference standard. A prospective study was carried on all patients referred to radio-diagnosis department at Tanta Cancer Centre between November 2015 and November 2016 for evaluation of undiagnosed thyroid nodules. All patients were examined by B-mode ultrasound, color Doppler, micropure imaging and ultrasound elastography. All thyroid nodules were subjected to fine-needle aspiration biopsy. 90 patients (78 women, 12 men) with 159 incompletely diagnosed thyroid nodules. 24 nodules were malignant and 135 nodules were benign, micro calcification was detected by micropure imaging in 40 nodules (29.6%) in the benign thyroid nodules and in 20 nodules (83.3%) in the malignant thyroid nodules (sensitivity 83.3%, specificity 70.4%, and accuracy 84.9%). Color flow Doppler (type III) with marked intranodular and absent or slight perinodular blood flow, was detected in 19 malignant nodules, with sensitivity 79.2%, specificity 95.6%, and the overall accuracy rate was 88.7%. The predictivity of ultrasound elastographic score measurement has high sensitivity 87.5%, and specificity 91.1%, Strain elastography cutoff value for malignant nodules was 2.7 (Sensitivity 83.3% and specificity 91.1%). Elastography and micropure imaging technique are useful imaging modalities to detect the nature of thyroid nodules. In combination with Doppler and B-mode sonography, they could give a better assessment for undiagnosed thyroid nodules.