Conventional ultrasound, color Doppler, TI-RADS, and shear wave elastography for thyroid nodule differentiation: a study of efficacy compared with the histopathology results

Egyptian Journal of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine

Table 1 Showing the diagnostic performance of conventional B-mode and color Doppler characteristics of the nodules

Us features		Malignant	Benign	Sensitivity (%) or chi squared, t value^a	Specificity (%) or p value
Nodule size in mm		27.7 ± 6.9	29.4 ± 4.1	t = 1.5	p = 0.125
Number of nodule	Solitary nodule	27	47	Chi squared = 1.3	0.252
Number of nodule	Multiple nodules^a	6	19	Chi squared = 1.3	0.252
Location of the nodule
	Right lobe	11	22	Chi squared = 0.060	p value = 0.996
	Left lobe	17	33
	Isthmus	3	7
	Different	2	4
Composition	Solid (n = 75)	30	45	90.9	31.8
Composition	Partially solid (n = 24)	3	21	90.9	31.8
Echogenicity	Hypo or marked hypoechogenicity (n = 28)	22	6	66.6	90.9
Echogenicity	Hyper or isoechogenicity (n = 71)	11	60	66.6	90.9
Calcification	Microcalcification (n = 12)	12	0	36.3	10
Calcification	Macro or no calcification (n = 87)	21	66	36.3	10
Shape	Taller than wider (n = 4)	4	0	12.1	10
Shape	Wider than taller (n = 95)	29	66	12.1	10
Margin	Irregular/ lobulated (n = 13)	2	11	6.06	83.3
Margin	Smooth/ill-defined (n = 86)	31	55	6.06	83.3
TI-RADS	TR 3 (n = 60)	5	55	84.8 of TR4 as a cutoff value	83.3 of TR4 as a cutoff value
	TR4 (n = 37)	26	11
	TR5 (n = 2)	2	0
Color Doppler	Avascular (0) (n = 70)	15	55	54.5 of intra-nodular vascularity as a cutoff value	100 of intra-nodular vascularity as a cutoff value
	Peri-nodular vascularity (1a) (n = 11)	0	11
	Intra-nodular vascularity (1b) (n = 15)	15	0
	Peri & intra- vascularities (1c) (n = 3)	3	0

^aIn cases of multiple nodules, the target nodule was considered as the most suspicious one, based on the B-mode and the color Doppler findings in addition to the highest TI-RADS score.