Elastography for the evaluation of thyroid nodules in pediatric patients

• Autor(a) principal: Cunha,Gustavo Bittar
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Marino,Luciana Cristante Izar, Yamaya,André, Kochi,Cristiane, Monte,Osmar, Longui,Carlos Alberto, Cury,Adriano Namo, Fleury,Eduardo de Faria Castro
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Radiologia Brasileira (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-39842019000300141
• topic: Thyroid neoplasms; Child; Thyroid nodule/diagnostic imaging; Elasticity imaging techniques; Ultrasonography

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of elastography (using manual compression) as an additional diagnostic tool for children and adolescents with thyroid nodules. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective study conducted between September 2012 and August 2013 at a hospital in Brazil. We performed elastography, ultrasound, and fine-needle aspiration biopsy in 32 patients between 6 and 18 years of age who had, in total, 38 thyroid nodules. Results: The elastography findings correlated with the histopathological diagnosis in 78.5% of cases. In three patients, an unnecessary thyroidectomy could have been avoided if the elastography results had been prioritized. Only one malignant thyroid nodule was found to show high elasticity. Conclusion: Our results suggest that high elasticity of a nodule on elastography is associated with a low risk of thyroid cancer. If further confirmed in other studies, elastography may prove useful as a complementary test for screening thyroid nodules in children.