Keywords:
Head and neck, Thyroid / Parathyroids, Ultrasound, Biopsy, Cancer
Authors:
P. Prieditis, M. Rauda, M. Tirane, K. Stepanovs, I. Štrumfa, M. Sperga, M. Radzina; Riga/LV
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2018/C-1878
Aims and objectives
The percentage of malignant thyroid nodules have been almost tripled since last century [1,
2] and it had been explained by the increased usage of ultrasound examination.
More and more authors are discussing overdiagnosis and overtreatment of thyroid cancer and situation has been called “epidemic”.
The number of publications which advocate that active surveillance can be the first-line management of small papillary thyroid carcinomas [3,
4,
5] is increasing.
In order to achieve a systematic evaluation of malignancy risk and reduce the number of biopsies,
Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TIRADS) has been introduced since 2009 [6].
Most of TIRADS variation in a potential risk group (TIRADS 4) include simple hypoechogenic nodules but is this sign enough to determine malignancy risk? Hypoechogenicity is one of the main US suspicious features of thyroid nodules [7]; however,
many benign thyroid nodules are hypoechogenic,
so that the positive predictive value of this feature is limited.
Our purpose is to evaluate simple thyroid nodule hypoechogenicity in TIRADS 3 group as a sign which increase risk of malignancy.