Contrast-enhanced Ultrasound for Diagnosing Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma / 中国医学影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Purpose To evaluate the diagnostic value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC) by exploring the relationship between quantitative parameters of time-intensity curve (TIC) of CEUS for PTC and tumor size and metastasis of cervical lymph nodes.Materials and Methods 124 patients with PTC confirmed by surgery and pathology in the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University were retrospectively analyzed.According to maximum diameter of lesions (D),the lesions were divided into three groups with D＜1.0 cm,1.0 cm ≤ D ≤ 2.0 cm and D＞2.0 cm.The lesions were also divided into LN(+) group with lymph node metastasis and LN(-) group without lymph node metastasis based on pathology of cervical lymph nodes.The features of CEUS and quantitative parameters of TIC of the above groups were analyzed.Results ① The CEUS showed that the PTC nodules were mainly concentric and heterogeneous enhancement.Thyroid carcinoma with D＜1.0 cm and 1.0 cm≤D≤2.0 cm showed low enhancement (45/57,31/42),while thyroid carcinomas with D＞2.0 cm exhibited high enhancement (14/25),and the difference was significant (P＜0.05).① With the increase of the diameter of PTC,the peak intensity [(12.75 ± 3.77)％,(15.53 ± 3.62)％,(18.11 ± 4.28)％],the area under the curve [(820.52±289.19)％.s,(873.84± 156.19)％· s,(1118.8± 152.48)％ ·s] and the ratio of the perfusion defects (24.56％,52.38％,72.00％) were increased,and the differences were statistically significant (P＜0.05).③ The cervical lymph node metastasis rate of PTCs with isoenhancement or hyperenhancement patterns showed by CEUS was significantly higher than that with hypoenhancement (P＜0.05).The peak intensity and the area under the curve of LN (+) group were higher than that of LN (-) group,and the differences were statistically significant (P＜0.05).Conclusion There were significant differences in imaging features of CEUS between the PTC nodules with different size and lymph node metastasis,which can provide valuable information for clinical diagnosis.