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. 2022 Mar 16:12:845549.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.845549. eCollection 2022.

US-Elastography With Different Techniques for Thyroid Nodule Characterization: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Vito Cantisani  1 , Annalisa De Silvestri  2 , Valeria Scotti  2 , Daniele Fresilli  1 , Maria Grazia Tarsitano  3 , Giorgia Polti  1 , Olga Guiban  1 , Eleonora Polito  1 , Patrizia Pacini  1 , Cosimo Durante  4 , Giorgio Grani  4 , Andrea M Isidori  5 , Elisa Giannetta  5 , Salvatore Sorrenti  6 , Pierpaolo Trimboli  7 , Carlo Catalano  1 , Roberto Cirocchi  8 , Augusto Lauro  6 , Vito D'Andrea  6
Affiliations

US-Elastography With Different Techniques for Thyroid Nodule Characterization: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Vito Cantisani et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

Background: Thyroid nodules are frequent in adult population and thyroid cancer incidence has increased dramatically over the past three decades. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the US-Elastosonography (USE) diagnostic performance in assessing the thyroid nodules malignancy risk.

Methods: PubMed and Embase databases were searched from January 2011 to July 2021. We extracted data from selected studies and calculated the overall diagnostic accuracy of qualitative USE, semi-quantitative USE and quantitative USE. Summary receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was elaborated to show the results. All statistical tests were performed using Metadisc and Medcal software package.

Results: Finally 72 studies with 13,505 patients and 14,015 thyroid nodules (33% malignant) undergoing elastography were included. The pooled sensitivity, specificity and AUC were 84%, 81%, and 0.89 respectively for qualitative USE; 83%, 80%, and 0.93 for semi-quantitative USE and 78%, 81% and 0.87, for quantitative USE. The qualitative and semiquantitative USE present very similar diagnostic accuracy values and both better than the quantitative USE.

Conclusions: USE is a useful imaging tool for thyroid nodule characterization. In accordance with recent guidelines and meta-analyses, the USE could be used daily in thyroid nodule malignancy risk stratification.

Systematic review registration: PROSPERO: CRD42021279257.

Keywords: USE; meta-analysis; real-time elastography; shear wave elastography; strain elastography; thyroid.

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Conflict of interest statement

Author VC reports a lecturer fee from Bracco, Samsung and Toshiba. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.​

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sensitivity and specificity forest plots and SROC curve for the qualitative USE. The circle size represents the nodule population of the selected articles; the line represents the confidence interval of the selected articles.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Sensitivity and specificity forest plots and SROC curve for the semiquantitative USE. The circle size represents the nodule population of the selected articles; the line represents the confidence interval of the selected articles.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Sensitivity and specificity forest plots and SROC curve for the quantitative USE. The circle size represents the nodule population of the selected articles; the line represents the confidence interval of the selected articles.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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