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Evaluation of Thyroid Gland Vascularity in Hashimoto's Thyroiditis Using Ultra-Microangiography Vascular Imaging
1Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Selcuk University Faculty of Medicine, Konya, Turkey.
Objectives:
In this study, we aimed to investigate possible differences in thyroid parenchymal vascularity between newly diagnosed and untreated patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and healthy participants by applying the subtraction ultra-microangiography (sUMA) vascular imaging technique.
Methods:
This study was conducted with participants consisting of 45 newly diagnosed patients with HT and 23 healthy individuals. In addition to laboratory investigation and conventional two-dimensional grayscale ultrasonography (US) examination, thyroid gland vascularity was quantitatively determined in all participants using color pixel percentage (CPP) values via the sUMA procedure. In both groups, CPP values, thyroid hormone levels, thyroid autoantibody levels, and thyroid volumes were compared.
Results:
Free T4, thyroid-stimulating hormone, thyroid peroxidase antibody, and thyroglobulin antibody levels were significantly different in the HT group (all P < .05), but no significant difference was observed between the groups in terms of free T3 levels (P = .058). In US evaluation, right and left thyroid lobe volumes showed a significant difference in the HT group (P = .036 and P = .003, respectively), while no significant difference was found in isthmus thickness (P = .190). When sUMA vascular imaging parameters were evaluated, both mean right CPP and mean left CPP values were significantly higher in the HT group compared to the control group (P < .001 for both values).
Conclusions:
We found that CPP values of the thyroid gland were increased in newly diagnosed patients with HT compared to healthy participants. Our findings have shown that the UMA method is effective and reliable in evaluating thyroid microvascularization and can be used in the diagnosis of HT with high sensitivity and specificity.
