The role of elastography in differantiating malignant from benign thyroid nodules

Purpose:strain elastography is a novel noninvasive diagnostic tool that is helpfull in the evaluation of the thyroid nodules. this technique examines the stiffness and hardness of tissue. with the principle that the softer tissue is easily deformed than the harder tissue under external compression, the deformability of tissue was applied to differentiate malignant from benign lesions. the aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of strain elastography in differentiating malignant from benign thyroid nodules. materials and methods:a total of 173 thyroid nodules were examined by gray scale ultrasonography and elastography before fine needle aspiration biopsy in 173 patients. sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of elastography, have been determined by comparing elastography results with fine needle aspiration biopsy results. results:for thyroid nodules of which 162 were benign (93.6%) and 11 malignant (6.4%) according to histopathology results; the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of elastography in identification of carcinoma were 45.4%, 55.5%, 6% and 94% respectively. according to these values elastography was not statistically significant in differantiating benign and malignant thyroid nodules (p>0.05). conclusion:in our study the sensitivity and specificity values of strain elastography in preoperative diagnosis of thyroid nodules were found to be lower in contrast to earlier reports. our study suggests biopsy is still the most reliable method for the evaluation of thyroid nodules.