Application of Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System in the Ultrasound Assessment of Thyroid Nodules According to Physician Experience

Abstract

In conclusion, the diagnostic performance of the stratification of malignancy risk according to TIRADS categories was comparable between the experienced and less experienced physician groups. The application of TIRADS is reproducible, and it was easy to predict the probability of thyroid malignancy in both the experienced and less experienced physician groups.

Cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules: increased diagnostic performance with combination of US TI-RADS and a new scoring system

“…was the easiest method in the clinical application and was used in our study. The high sensitivity and NPV (99.6% and 96.6%) obtained in the current study were consistent with the previous studies (sensitivity, 97.4–99.1% and NPV, 98.1–99.1%) 23 , 27 , 28 . In addition, a recent report used the TI-RADS proposed by Horvath et al .…”

“…Moreover, some other US signs, such as halo sign, nodule size and vascularity, which were not considered by Ko et al . 23 , were proposed as significant predictors in diagnosing malignant TNs in other previous studies 24 – 26 . Therefore, these US features should be considered when developing a scoring system to predict malignancy in indeterminate nodules.…”

“…In addition, Ko et al . had investigated the diagnostic performances of this TI-RADS in differentiating malignant from benign TNs, with 99.1% sensitivity, 35.9% specificity, 52.5% accuracy, 35.5% positive predictive value (PPV) and 99.1% negative predictive value (NPV), respectively 23 . However, the high sensitivity and NPV obtained by Ko et al .…”

“…Therefore, these US features should be considered when developing a scoring system to predict malignancy in indeterminate nodules. Furthermore, the specificity (25.6–35.9%) of Kwak’s TI-RADS was relatively low in diagnosis of malignant nodules, thus further refinement of diagnostic methods is needed 23 , 27 , 28 .…”

Large (≥3cm) thyroid nodules with benign cytology: Can Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TIRADS) help predict false-negative cytology?

“…Thus, intra- and interobserver variabilities in interpreting the US results exist. However, previous published data from our institution revealed more than a moderate degree of agreement in US assessment of thyroid nodules among experienced radiologists [38] and other studies have also shown that the diagnostic performances of malignant stratification using TIRADS categories are comparable regardless of the performer’s level of experience [39, 40]. These results support our opinion that any bias due to having 10 different US operators participate in the present study did not significantly affect our study results nor their interpretation.…”