Diagnostic Accuracy of Elastography in Differentiating Benign from Malignant Thyroid Nodules Taking Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology as Gold Standard

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Strain Elastography in differentiating benign from malignant thyroidnodules taking fine needle aspiration cytology as gold standard.Study Design and Setting: It was a cross sectional study conducted at Radiology department of Jinnah PostgraduateMedical Centre, Karachi from May 2019 to June 2020Methodology: Total 586 patients with complaints of swelling in region of thyroid gland were enrolled in study on whichStrain Elastography was performed using linear transducer with ultrasound frequency of 7.5 MHz. The results of strainElastography were compared with histopathology. All the information was recorded into predesigned proforma. Chi-squaretest was used for comparison among categorical variables and when it has not worked then imitation of Monte Carlos wasapplied and to see agreement among various categorical variables Kappa statistics were performed. Level of statisticalsignificance was accepted as P < 0.05.Results: The sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 80.2%, positive predictive value of 61.7%, negative predictive value of100%, and diagnostic accuracy of 85% of elastography was calculated in differentiation among benign from malignantthyroid nodules.Conclusion: Strain elastography