Élastographie ultrasonore des lésionsthyroïdiennes

Elastosonography of thyroid lesions While ultrasound is theimaging modality of choice for diagnosis of thyroid lesions, characterizationremains limited and tissue diagnosis frequently is required for management. Theavailability of additional tools such as elastography may improve lesioncharacterization and direct management. Materials and Methods: Atotal of 96 patients (11 males and 85 females ;58±24 years) referred for fine needle aspiration (FNA) of mainlysolid thyroid nodules 9-32 mm in diameter underwent conventional US andelastosonography. Results on elastography were correlated with histologicalresults from FNA and classified as follows: suspected malignant lesion,suspected benign lesion, suspicious, indeterminate. Results: Thenodules were classified as follows: 95 nodules were soft (classes Iand II) and 13 nodules were hard (classes III and IV). No cancerswere detected in class and II lesions and 6 cancers were detected inclass III and IV lesions. FNA provided insufficient cellular material fordiagnosis in 5 class I-II nodules and 2 class III-IV nodules. Conclusion: Real-time elastosonography may be a useful adjunt toconventional US in the evaluation and characterization of thyroid nodulesallowing identification of patients at high risk of malignancy for whom tissuediagnosis and/or close follow-up is required.