Role of color-coded virtual touch tissue imaging in suspected thyroid nodules

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Conventional ultrasound (US) is the most widely used imaging test for thyroid nodule surveillance. OBJECTIVE: We used the color-coded virtual touch tissue imaging (VTI) in the Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) technique to assess the hardness of the American College of Radiology (ACR) Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS) TR3-5 nodules. The ability of color-coded VTI (CV) to discriminate between benign and malignant nodules was investigated. METHODS: In this retrospective study, US and CV were performed on 211 TR3-5 thyroid lesions in 181 consecutive patients. All nodules were operated on to obtain pathological results. A multivariate logistic regression model was chosen to integrate the data obtained from the US and CV. RESULTS: The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for the model was 0.945 (95% CI, 0.914 to 0.976). The cutoff value of predictive probability for diagnosing malignant thyroid nodules was 10.64%, the sensitivity was 94.43%, and the specificity was 83.12%. Through comparing with US and CV, respectively, it had been observed that the regression model had the best performance (all P< 0.001). However, when the US was compared with CV, the difference was not significant (P= 0.3304). CONCLUSIONS: A combination of US and CV should be recommended for suspected malignant thyroid nodules in clinical practice.