Objective:

The study was to explore diagnostic value of a new shear wave elastography (SWE) in distinguishing benign from malignant thyroid nodules.

Methods:

From Jan to Nov 2015

the imaging data of 162 thyroid nodules in 162 patients proven by pathology on conventional ultrasound and SWE were retrospectively analyzed. The nodules were categorized into three groups according to size (group 1

10 mm; group 2

10-20 mm; and group 3

20 mm)

and their mean

min

and max shea

r wave velocities (SWVS) were measured. Receiver-operating characteristic curves (ROC) were constructed to determine the optimum cutoff values

calculate the area under curve (AUC)

the sensitivity

specificity.

Results:

There were 93 benign thyroid nodules and 69 malignant thyroid nodules among 162 patients. For all groups

the mean

min

and max SWV of malignant nodules were significantly higher than those of benign nodules (

P

0.05). According AUC

the diagnostic performance of SWV-mean was relatively superior. The cut-off value

sensitivity

specificity and AUC of SWV-mean regard different groups were as follows: 1)10mm：2.70 m/s、 65.4%、87.0%、0.773 (95%CI：0.631

0.881); 2)10-20 mm：2.99 m/s、82.1%、70.0%、0.790 (95%CI：0.675

0.879）; 3) 20 mm：2.65 m/s、78.6%、87.5%、0.855（95%CI：0716

0.943）. The cut-off values of SWV-mean were not significantly different among the three groups (all

P

0.05).

Conclusion:

The SWE technique is a promising method in differential diagnosis for thyroid nodules.