Ultrasonographic Characteristics of Thyroid Nodules

Abstract

ULTRASONOGRAPHY (US) is useful for evaluation of thyroid nodules because of its safety, noninvasiveness, nonradioactivity, and effectiveness. Presently, high-resolution real-time US not only detects the presence, site, number, and size of thyroid nodules but also clearly shows the characteristics of thyroid nodules. However, the US differentiation between malignant nodules and benign nodules is not well described.^1-12 Some authors have reported US diagnosis of thyroid nodules of all types with relatively high sensitivity ranging from 74% to 81%,^3,6,7,9 but no formulas based on analysis of US characteristics are available to predict malignancy. Any useful formula should be simple and accurate for clinical use. We therefore evaluated US characteristics of thyroid nodules prospectively and analyzed the probability of malignancy on the basis of multiple logistic regression analysis.