Towards in vivo characterization of thyroid nodules suspicious for malignancy using multispectral optoacoustic tomography.
Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging
; 50(9): 2736-2750, 2023 07.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37039901
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
Patient-tailored management of thyroid nodules requires improved risk of malignancy stratification by accurate preoperative nodule assessment, aiming to personalize decisions concerning diagnostics and treatment. Here, we perform an exploratory pilot study to identify possible patterns on multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) for thyroid malignancy stratification. For the first time, we directly correlate MSOT images with histopathology data on a detailed level.METHODS:
We use recently enhanced data processing and image reconstruction methods for MSOT to provide next-level image quality by means of improved spatial resolution and spectral contrast. We examine optoacoustic features in thyroid nodules associated with vascular patterns and correlate these directly with reference histopathology.RESULTS:
Our methods show the ability to resolve blood vessels with diameters of 250 µm at depths of up to 2 cm. The vessel diameters derived on MSOT showed an excellent correlation (R2-score of 0.9426) with the vessel diameters on histopathology. Subsequently, we identify features of malignancy observable in MSOT, such as intranodular microvascularity and extrathyroidal extension verified by histopathology. Despite these promising features in selected patients, we could not determine statistically relevant differences between benign and malignant thyroid nodules based on mean oxygen saturation in thyroid nodules. Thus, we illustrate general imaging artifacts of the whole field of optoacoustic imaging that reduce image fidelity and distort spectral contrast, which impedes quantification of chromophore presence based on mean concentrations.CONCLUSION:
We recommend examining optoacoustic features in addition to chromophore quantification to rank malignancy risk. We present optoacoustic images of thyroid nodules with the highest spatial resolution and spectral contrast to date, directly correlated to histopathology, pushing the clinical translation of MSOT.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Nódulo da Glândula Tireoide
/
Técnicas Fotoacústicas
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging
Assunto da revista:
MEDICINA NUCLEAR
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Holanda