Diagnostic value of strain ratio (SR) for thyroid imaging reporting and data system 4 class thyroid nodules

WEN Baojie; ZHANG Jie; JIN Zhibin; KONG Wentao; YU Pengli; WU Min

Abstract：Objective To explore the differential diagnostic value of strain ratio (SR) for thyroid imaging reporting and data system (TI-RADS) 4 class thyroid nodules.Methods The ultrasound features of patients with 154 thyroid nodules from 152 patients were retrospectively analyzed.The malignant risk of each nodule was evaluated and classified according to TI-RADS.The classification of TI-RADS 4a, 4b and 4c were respectively 17, 31 and 106.All thyroid nodules were received ultrasonic elastography examination, and strain ratio (SR) was recorded, the best cut-off point of SR was recorded by drawing receiver operating characteristic curve.The SR of 154 thyroid nodules were compared with the pathological results.Results In the study, the thyroid nodules of SR<0.50 were recognized as malignant nodule.Among 154 TI-RADS 4 class thyroid nodules diagnosed by the strain ratio (SR), 76 nodules were malignant and 78 nodules were benign.According to postoperative pathological results, 78 nodules were malignant and 76 nodules were benign.The difference of strain ratio (SR) diagnosis results and actual results was statistically significant (P<0.01).The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of SR diagnosis of TI-RADS 4 class thyroid nodules were 87.18%, 89.47%, 89.47%, 87.18% and 88.31%, respectively.Conclusion The SR examination is valuable for the diagnosis of 4 class thyroid nodules and can effectively improv the accuracy of preoperative diagnosis.