Color Doppler sonography: Anatomic and physiologic assessment of the thyroid

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the potential application of color Doppler sonography in thyroid imaging. Thyroid nodules and other thyroid pathology detected by color Doppler ultrasound and nuclear scintigraphy were compared in 115 patients. The majority of "cold" nodules demonstrated a peripheral rim of color flow and no internal color flow with color Doppler sonography. A large number of "hot" nodules demonstrated internal color flow. Color Doppler sonography was helpful in delineating nodules in otherwise inhomogeneous glands. We determined that color Doppler cannot reliably distinguish benign from malignant thyroid nodules; fine-needle aspiration biopsy remains the most accurate method in differentiating benign and malignant lesions. We suggest that color Doppler sonography plays only a limited role in the evaluation of nodular thyroid disease at this time. The color Doppler appearance of other thyroid disorders (including toxic multinodular goiter, Graves' disease, and thyroiditis) is discussed.

Diagnosis of Thyroid Follicular Carcinoma by the Vascular Pattern and Velocimetric Parameters Using High Resolution Pulsed and Power Doppler Ultrasonography

“…Thus, in this study, the vascular patterns of FC evaluated by power Doppler sonography could be of value in differentiating malignant FC from benign FA. In agreement with previous studies [2,6,8,11], the color flow pattern of benign nodules demonstrated a peripheral rim of color flow or no color flow. This appearance is likely related to compression of normal thyroid tissue due to growth of the adenoma or adenomatous tissues.…”

“…Recently, high resolution pulsed and color Doppler US (CD) are widely used as noninvasive procedures that can easily obtain interesting data about the vascularity of parenchymatous structures. Recent investigators have indicated that the contemporary means of evaluating morphology and vascular structures may have an important role in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant tumor [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. But, to date, the application of power Doppler US to thyroid follicular tumor analysis has not been demonstrated as having definite clinical usefulness.…”

Color flow mapping: a non-invasive tool for characterizing and differentiating between uveal melanomas and choroidal metastases

“…The mean EDV was 4.5 cm/sec (range 1-15) in the melanoma group and 7.1 cm/sec (range [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] in the metastases group (p=0.11). The mean PSV was 12.9 cm/sec (range 3-36) in the melanoma group and 19.1 cm/sec (range 5-57) in the metastases group (p=0.25).…”

“…Many diagnoses, such as testicular torsion, orchitis, epididymitis (11), thyroiditis (12), lymphadenitis versus metastatic disease in lymph nodes (13) and synovitis (14), are made solely on subjective color Doppler estimations. Although tumors can be characterized as being hypo-or hyper-vascular, CFM is not specific and additional imaging or histologic evaluation is usually needed (15,16). Tumors have also been evaluated by CFM characterizations, such as the absence of vascularization, presence of peripheral vascularization and presence of central vascularization, by means of methods similar to the one used in the current study (17).…”

Thyroid Ultrasound: State of the Art. Part 2 – Focal Thyroid Lesions

“…If a solitary adenoma is seen in the case of a hyperthyroid functional state, the probability that this represents carcinoma is extremely low. Regressive thyroid nodules, however, usually only show peripheral and not central vascularization [21].…”