Objective:

To assess the clinical application value of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) and virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) technique in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.

Methods:

ARFI and VTIQ were performed in 80 thyroid nodules in 62 patients to obtain the internal transverse shear

wave velocity (SWV). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn to evaluate the diagnostic results comparing with pathological findings

and compare the area under curve (AUC).

Results:

The SWVs obtained from ARFI and VTIQ in the malignant thyroid nodules were all significantly higher than benign ones (

P

0.05). The area under ROC curve of VTIQ (0.86) was larger than that of ARFI (0.77) (

P

0.05).

Conclusion:

Compared with ARFI

VTIQ could dramatically improve the capability of differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules.