Association between real-time contrast-enhanced ultrasound characteristics and thyroid carcinoma size

The aim of the present study was to discuss the various appearances of thyroid carcinomas on real-time contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in association with tumor size. The appearances of 68 thyroid carcinomas confirmed by pathology were retrospectively analyzed. The lesions were divided into 3 groups by maximum diameter <10, 10-20 and >20 mm, respectively. For each lesion, absolute enhancement beginning time, relative enhancement beginning time, homogeneity, with or without perfusion defect, enhancement order, enhancement intensity and enhancement margin type were evaluated by CEUS. The majority of thyroid carcinomas were enhanced later than the surrounding thyroid gland. The predominant enhancement pattern of all the 68 thyroid carcinomas in the 3 groups was mainly heterogeneous and concentric enhancement, and the lesions mostly showed less clear or poorly defined enhancement margins. There was no significant difference among the 3 groups (P>0.05). Thyroid carcinoma with diameters <10 and 10-20 mm exhibited low enhancement, while thyroid carcinomas with diameters >20 mm showed high enhancement. With the increase of the lesion's maximum diameter, the probability of perfusion defect increased by 28.57, 54.29 and 75.00%, respectively, and there was a significant difference among the 3 groups (P<0.05). CEUS characteristics are associated with tumor size to a certain extent, and can provide valuable information for clinical diagnosis.