Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015:2015:693404.
doi: 10.1155/2015/693404. Epub 2015 Jan 22.

Dependence of thyroid sonographic markers of malignancy and its influence on the diagnostic value of sonographic findings

Kosma Woliński  1 , Adam Stangierski  1 , Ewelina Szczepanek-Parulska  1 , Edyta Gurgul  1 , Marek Ruchała  1
Affiliations

Dependence of thyroid sonographic markers of malignancy and its influence on the diagnostic value of sonographic findings

Kosma Woliński et al. Biomed Res Int. 2015.

Abstract

Introduction: Thyroid nodules constitute frequent medical condition. Ultrasonographic (US) examination remains the basis in the diagnostics of nodular goiter and selection of the suspected ones requiring fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). The aim of this study was to evaluate if the features so far considered to be US malignancy markers are dependent or independent variables and to check if these data are clinically relevant.

Materials and methods: Patients with diagnosed thyroid nodular goiter admitted for thyroidectomy, irrespectively of the indications for surgery, were involved. The following parameters were assessed: echogenicity, the presence of calcifications, presence of halo, shape, margins, structure (solid, partially or pure cystic), and elasticity of the nodules (assessed quantitatively).

Results: 122 consecutive patients with 393 thyroid nodules were included. There were significant associations between halo absence and irregular borders, micro- and macrocalcifications, taller-than-wide feature and macrocalcifications, irregular margins and macrocalcifications, and also decreased elasticity of nodules and several attributes (partially cystic character, micro- and macrocalcifications).

Conclusions: Not only diagnostic value of particular sonographic features but also data about cooccurrence and associations between them are clinically relevant. Although most of these features turned out to be independent, omitting significant association can lead to incorrect assessment of the risk of malignancy.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Tan G. H., Gharib H. Thyroid incidentalomas: management approaches to nonpalpable nodules discovered incidentally on thyroid imaging. Annals of Internal Medicine. 1997;126(3):226–231. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-126-3-199702010-00009. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Staničić J., Prpić M., Jukić T., Borić M., Kusić Z. Thyroid nodularity—true epidemic or improved diagnostics. Acta Clinica Croatica. 2009;48(4):413–418. - PubMed
    1. Ruchała M., Szczepanek-Parulska E., Fularz M., Woliński K. Risk of neoplasms in acromegaly. Wspolczesna Onkologia. 2012;16(2):111–124. doi: 10.5114/wo.2012.28790. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wolinski K., Czarnywojtek A., Ruchala M. Risk of thyroid nodular disease and thyroid cancer in patients with acromegaly—meta-analysis and systematic review. PLoS ONE. 2014;9(2) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088787. e88787 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Carpi A., Rossi G., Romani R., et al. Are risk factors common to thyroid cancer and nodule? A forty years observational time-trend study. PLoS ONE. 2012;7(10) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047758.e47758 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms