Role of sonographic features in predicting the malignant potential of thyroid nodules

Abstract

However, while thyroid nodules are common, thyroid malignancy is relatively rare, constituting about 1% of all malignancies. The main point of the approach of the thyroid nodule is the detection of the malignant nodules and deciding for the surgical treatment. Ultrasonography (US) plays a crucial role in the diagnostic management of thyroid nodules. The aim was to assess the reliability of using hypoechoic, solid and ill-defined margin as independent predictors for the identification of malignant thyroid nodules on US. We retrospectively analysed the three suspicious US features of malignancy for 145 patients with 255 thyroid nodules who underwent thyroid resection. We used histological results as gold standard reference test. Of the 255 surgical resected nodules; hypoechoic nodules had a sensitivity of 66.7%, and positive predictive value (PPV) of 8.7%. Solid nodules had a sensitivity of 33.3% and PPV of 3.7%. Ill-defined margins nodules had a sensitivity of 66.7% and PPV of 6.9% in predicting malignancy. The present study adds further evidence on the poor PPV in our results, indicated, that individual US features are not reliable used as independent predictors for the identification of malignant potential thyroid nodules on US.