Differentiation of benign from malignant thyroid nodules with acoustic radiation force impulse technique

The aim of our study was to assess the performance of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging to differentiate benign from malignant thyroid nodules.

182 patients who needed thyroid surgery were examined. All patients and 50 healthy volunteers underwent ARFI sonoelastography, which quantitatively analysed the elasticity and hardness of the nodule's centre and periphery.

ARFI values showed a statistical significance between malignant nodules and benign nodules and common thyroid parenchyma, in both the centre and periphery of nodules (p < 0.01). There was no significant difference between benign nodules and common thyroid parenchyma in either the nodule's centre or periphery (p > 0.05). There was no significant difference between the nodule's centre and periphery of the elastic parameters in both the benign and malignant nodules. There was a statistically significant difference among the two areas (the central group and the peripheral group) under the receiver operating characteristic curve, and the optimal model was the peripheral group. For differentiation of malignant from benign nodules, the sensitivity and specificity were 96.3% and 96.2%, respectively, when 2.545 m s(-1) was chosen as a cut-off value in the peripheral group.

ARFI imaging may be helpful to differentiate benign nodules from malignant thyroid nodules. The selecting measurement position is important in ARFI imaging, and it has good diagnostic value in clinical applications.

This study shows the diagnostic contribution of ARFI imaging in thyroid lesions.