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
Review
. 2022 Feb 12;12(2):471.
doi: 10.3390/diagnostics12020471.

Radiomics Analysis of [18F]FDG PET/CT Thyroid Incidentalomas: How Can It Improve Patients' Clinical Management? A Systematic Review from the Literature

Mirela Gherghe  1   2 , Alexandra Maria Lazar  2 , Mario-Demian Mutuleanu  1   2 , Adina Elena Stanciu  3 , Sorina Martin  4   5
Affiliations
Review

Radiomics Analysis of [18F]FDG PET/CT Thyroid Incidentalomas: How Can It Improve Patients' Clinical Management? A Systematic Review from the Literature

Mirela Gherghe et al. Diagnostics (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: We performed a systematic review of the literature to provide an overview of the application of PET-based radiomics of [18F]FDG-avid thyroid incidentalomas and to discuss the additional value of PET volumetric parameters and radiomic features over clinical data.

Methods: The most relevant databases were explored using an algorithm constructed based on a combination of terms related to our subject and English-language articles published until October 2021 were considered. Among the 247 identified articles, 19 studies were screened for eligibility and 11 met the criteria, with 4 studies including radiomics analyses.

Results: We summarized the available literature based on a study of PET volumetric parameters and radiomics. Ten articles provided accurate details about volumetric parameters and their prospective value in tumour assessment. We included the data provided by these articles in a sub-analysis, but could not obtain statistically relevant results. Four publications analyzed the diagnostic potential of radiomics and the possibility of creating precise predictive models, their corresponding quality score being assessed.

Conclusions: The use of PET volumetric parameters and radiomics analysis in patients with [18F]FDG-avid thyroid incidentalomas outlines a great prospect in diagnosis and stratification of patients with malignant nodules and may represent a way of limiting the need for unnecessary invasive procedures; however, further studies need to be performed for a standardization of the method.

Keywords: [18F]FDG PET/CT; radiomics; thyroid incidentaloma; volumetric parameters.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of the process of selection of literature data including in this qualitative review.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Completion rate of each radiomics quality score characteristic for the 4 studies included in this review.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Russ G., Leboulleux S., Leenhardt L., Hegedüs L. Thyroid Incidentalomas: Epidemiology, Risk Stratification with Ultrasound and Workup. Eur. Thyroid J. 2014;3:154–163. doi: 10.1159/000365289. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bertagna F., Treglia G., Piccardo A., Giubbini R. Diagnostic and Clinical Significance of F-18-FDG-PET/CT Thyroid Incidentalomas. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 2012;97:3866–3875. doi: 10.1210/jc.2012-2390. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Scappaticcio L., Piccardo A., Treglia G., Poller D.N., Trimboli P. The Dilemma of A18F-FDG PET/CT Thyroid Incidentaloma: What We Should Expect from FNA. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Endocrine. 2021;73:540–549. doi: 10.1007/s12020-021-02683-4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Roddy S., Biggans T., Raofi A.K., Kanodia A., Sudarshan T., Guntur Ramkumar P. Prevalence of Incidental Thyroid Ma-lignancy on Routine 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose PET-CT in a Large Teaching Hospital. Eur. J. Hybrid Imaging. 2020;4:21. doi: 10.1186/s41824-020-00089-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pattison D.A., Bozin M., Gorelik A., Hofman M.S., Hicks R.J., Skandarajah A. 18F-FDG-Avid Thyroid Incidentalomas: The Importance of Contextual Interpretation. J. Nucl. Med. 2018;59:749–755. doi: 10.2967/jnumed.117.198085. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources