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Updated: Mar 14, 2026
Author Spotlight: Integrating Ultrasound Imaging with Biochemical Markers for Thyroid Disease Diagnosis
Published on: February 9, 2024
Diffusion-Weighted Imaging Using a Readout-Segmented, Multishot EPI Sequence at 3 T Distinguishes between
Stefan Schob1, Peter Voigt2, Lionel Bure3
1Department of Neuroradiology, University Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Background:
Thyroid carcinomas represent the most frequent endocrine malignancies. Recent studies were able to distinguish malignant from benign nodules of the thyroid gland with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). Although this differentiation is undoubtedly helpful, presurgical discrimination between well-differentiated and undifferentiated carcinomas would be crucial to define the optimal treatment algorithm. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate if readout-segmented multishot echo planar DWI is able to differentiate between differentiated and undifferentiated subtypes of thyroid carcinomas.
Patients And Methods:
Fourteen patients with different types of thyroid carcinomas who received preoperative DWI were included in our study. In all lesions, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC)min, ADCmean, ADCmax, and D were estimated on the basis of region of interest measurements after coregistration with T1-weighted, postcontrast images. All tumors were resected and analyzed histopathologically. Ki-67 index, p53 synthesis, cellularity, and total and average nucleic areas were estimated using ImageJ version 1.48.
Results:
Analysis of variance revealed a statistically significant difference in ADCmean values between differentiated and undifferentiated thyroid carcinomas (P=.022). Spearman Rho calculation identified significant correlations between ADCmax and cell count (r=0.541, P=.046) as well as between ADCmax and total nuclei area (r=0.605, P=.022).
Conclusion:
DWI can distinguish between differentiated and undifferentiated thyroid carcinomas.
