The value of quantitative parameters of enhanced CT histogram in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules
YE Ruiting
LIU Bihua
ZOU Yujian
YUAN Zhuobin
WU Wenhui
WU Hongzhen
Abstract：Objective To investigate the value of quantitative histogram parameters derived from contrast-enhanced computed tomography(CT)in differentiating benign from malignant thyroid nodules.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on a cohort of 86 patients with thyroid nodules confirmed by surgical pathology,comprising 44 malignant cases and 42 benign cases.All patients underwent dual-phase contrast-enhanced CT scans.Regions of interest(ROIs)were delineated on non-contrast,arterial-phase,and venous-phase CT images.First-order statistical parameters of CT histogram(CTH)features within the ROIs were extracted using the medical imaging analysis software(MaZda),including mean,variance,skewness,kurtosis,and percentiles(Perc.01%,Perc.10%,Perc.50%,Perc.90%,Perc.99%).Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve analysis were employed to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of individual and combined CTH parameters in distinguishing between benign and malignant thyroid nodules.Results Eight parameters showed statistically significant differences between the two groups:variance,skewness,kurtosis,Perc.50%,Perc.90%,and Perc.99%in the arterial phase,as well as skewness and Perc.50%in the venous phase.Among these parameters,Perc.90%and Perc.99%in the arterial phase demonstrated comparable and the highest diagnostic performance.Arterial-phase kurtosis,Perc.50%,Perc.90%,and venous-phase Perc.50%were identified as independent predictors for differentiating between benign and malignant thyroid nodules.The combination of these four parameters yielded the highest diagnostic efficacy(AUC=0.714).Conclusion The quantitative parameters derived from contrast-enhanced CT histograms may serve as auxiliary references for differentiating between benign and malignant thyroid nodules.
Keywords：thyroid nodulethyroid cancerCT histogramcontrast-enhanced CTarterial phasevenous phase
Publication Date：2026-02-28
Online Publishing Date：2026-01-28(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：8( 77-84 )