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Updated: Apr 22, 2026
Author Spotlight: Integrating Ultrasound Imaging with Biochemical Markers for Thyroid Disease Diagnosis
Published on: February 9, 2024
Thyroid nodule morphology affects the efficacy of ultrasound-guided interstitial laser ablation: a nested
Giovanni Gambelunghe1, Vittorio Bini, Elisa Stefanetti
1Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Internal Medicine and Metabolic and Endocrine Diseases, University of Perugia , Perugia .
Purpose:
The literature reports a wide range of percentages of ablation in the treatment of thyroid nodules. The aim of this nested case-control study was to evaluate whether the different morphological (well-defined vs. agglomerate) characteristics of nodules affect the success rate.
Materials And Methods:
We selected 20 patients with a single and /or dominant well-defined nodule (group 1) and 20 with a nodular formation resulting from the fusion of multiple nodules (group 2). All the nodules were treated by the laser method receiving the same energy.
Results:
At 6 months, patients in group 1 showed a greater decrease in volume than those in group 2. These differences were more evident after 12 months.
Conclusions:
Our study demonstrates that the efficacy of laser treatment can be predicted by nodule morphology and contributes to explaining the wide differences in the percentages of ablation reported in literature.
