Keywords:
Head and neck, Thyroid / Parathyroids, Ultrasound, Structured reporting, Quality assurance
Authors:
M. Cossens, C. Dunn, J. Gillespie; QLD/AU
DOI:
10.26044/ranzcr2019/R-0119
Purpose
Thyroid nodules are a commonly encountered clinical problem. Although 85 to 98% of thyroid nodules are benign1 the small chance of malignancy leads to the workup of many benign nodules leading to additional imaging and biopsies. In an effort to address the problem of excessive workup of benign thyroid nodules the ACR developed the TIRADS (Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System) with the aim of reducing unnecessary biopsies, detect thyroid malignancies and promote standardisation of thyroid nodule description and management recommendations2,3.
We undertook this study to compare thyroid nodule descriptions and management recommendations before and after implementing ACR TIRADS in a tertiary hospital medical imaging department with the hope that ACR TIRADS would lead to more consistent reporting of ultrasound features and provision of specific management recommendations.