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
. 2019 Mar 8:84:e142-e146.
doi: 10.5114/pjr.2019.84096. eCollection 2019.

Assessment of lacrimal glands in thyroid eye disease with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging

Ahmed Abdel Razek  1 , El-Hadidy Mohamed El-Hadidy  1 , Mohamed El-Said Moawad  1 , Nader El-Metwaly  1 , Amr Abd El-Hamid El-Said  1
Affiliations

Assessment of lacrimal glands in thyroid eye disease with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging

Ahmed Abdel Razek et al. Pol J Radiol. .

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the lacrimal glands in patients with thyroid eye disease with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging.

Material and methods: This study was carried out on 44 consecutive patients (17 males, 27 females, with mean age 36 years) with thyroid eye disease and 20 age- and sex-matched volunteers. They underwent diffusion-weighted MR imaging of the orbit. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of the lacrimal glands were calculated and correlated with the clinical activity score (CAS).

Results: The mean ADC of lacrimal glands in thyroid eye disease (1.73 × 10-3 mm2/s) was significantly higher (p = 0.001) than that of volunteers (1.52 × 10-3 mm2/s). The cutoff ADC value of lacrimal gland used for differentiation of thyroid eye disease from volunteers was 1.62 × 10-3 mm2/s with an area under the curve value of 0.95 and an accuracy of 96%. There was significant difference (p = 0.03) in the ADC of the lacrimal glands in patients with active (n = 24) and inactive (n = 20) disease. The cutoff ADC value of the lacrimal gland used to suspect active disease was 1.76 × 10-3 mm2/s with an area under the curve value of 0.80 and an accuracy of 82%. There was positive correlation between the ADC value of the lacrimal glands and CAS (r = 0.73, p = 0.001).

Conclusions: The ADC of the lacrimal glands is a non-invasive imaging parameter that can be used for diagnosis of thyroid eye disease and to predict the active form of the disease.

Keywords: MR imaging; diffusion; lacrimal gland; thyroid eye disease.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Region of interest (ROI) localisation: apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) map shows ROI localisation of lacrimal gland
Figure 2
Figure 2
Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve: A) The cutoff apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value of the lacrimal gland used for differentiation of thyroid eye disease from volunteers is 1.62 × 10–3 mm2/s with AUC of 0.95 and accuracy of 96%. B) The cutoff value of ADC value of the lacrimal gland used to predict active thyroid eye disease is 1.76 × 10–3 mm2/s with AUC of 0.80 and an accuracy of 82%
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Weiler DL. Thyroid eye disease: a review. Clin Exp Optom. 2017;100:20–25. - PubMed
    1. Smith TJ, Hegedüs L. Graves’ disease. N Engl J Med. 2016;375:1552–1555. - PubMed
    1. Barrio-Barrio J, Sabater AL, Bonet-Farriol E, et al. Graves’ ophthalmopathy: VISA versus EUGOGO classification, assessment, and management. J Ophthalmol. 2015;2015:249125. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Byun JS, Moon NJ, Lee JK. Quantitative analysis of orbital soft tissues on computed tomography to assess the activity of thyroid-associated orbitopathy. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2017;255:413–420. - PubMed
    1. Huh HD, Kim JH, Kim SJ, et al. The change of lacrimal gland volume in korean patients with thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy. Korean J Ophthalmol. 2016;30:319–325. - PMC - PubMed