ObjectiveTo investigate effect of recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring in video-assisted thyroidectomy for huge thyroid nodules. MethodsThe clinical data of 158 patients with huge thyroid nodules underwent videoassisted thyroidectomy from January 2013 to June 2015 were analyzed retrospectively, the recurrent laryngeal nerves were monitored in 79 cases (monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group) while the recurrent laryngeal nerves were not monitored in the other patients (non-monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group). The operative time, blood loss, postoperative drainage, postoperative hospital stay, and the incidences of transient and permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve injury were observed between these two groups. ResultsThe video-assisted miniincision thyroidectomy was successfully completed in these 158 cases. Compared with the non-monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group, the operative time (min) was shorter (76.2±23.4 versus 89.2±29.8, P < 0.05), the blood loss and the postoperative drainage were less (16.3±13.6 versus 20.6±10.7, P < 0.05; 20.7±9.6 versus 25.5±9.1, P < 0.05) in the monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group. But the postoperative hospital stay (d) had no significant difference between the monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group and the non-monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group (3.2±1.3 versus 3.3±1.9, P > 0.05). Eight weeks later, the incidence of transient recurrent laryngeal nerve injury in the monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group was significantly lower than that in the non-monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group [5.6% (5/90) versus 21.8% (17/78), P < 0.05], while the incidence of permanent nerve injury had no statistical difference between the monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group and the non-monitoring of recurrent laryngeal nerve group [0(0/90) versus 1.3% (1/78), P > 0.05]. ConclusionRecurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring under video-assisted thyroidectomy for huge thyroid nodules could effectively reduce incidence of nerve injury and shorten operation time.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the diagnostic value of BRAFV600E mutation test in high-risk thyroid nodules with easily underdiagnosed fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) results.MethodsRetrospectively collected 122 cases of thyroid nodule who treated in the Hebei Petrochina Central Hospital between January 2017 and December 2018, all the cases admitted preoperative ultrasound and FNAB detection. All of the patients had the non-positive cytological results of FNAB and the high-risk features of ultrasound. Contrasted the postoperative pathological coincidence rate of combination of FNAB and BRAFV600E test with FNAB alone.ResultsThe BRAFV600E mutation rate was 27.0% (33/122). The positive rate of BRAFV600E mutation increased with the increase of ultrasound thyroid imaging reporting and data system(TI-RADS) grade (P<0.05), which was independent of patients’ age, gender, number of nodules, diameter of nodules, and FNAB results (P>0.05). The coincidence rate of FNAB combined with BRAFV600E mutation detection was higher than that of FNAB alone ［86.9% (106/122) vs. 69.7% (85/122), P<0.05).ConclusionsThe BRAFV600E mutation test can detect papillary thyroid carcinoma that might be missed by FNAB. We recommend that FNAB should be routinely accompanied by the BRAFV600E mutation test in the high-risk thyroid nodules.
ObjectiveTo explore the diagnostic value of ultrasound elastography (USE) combined with long non-coding RNA actin filament associated protein 1 anti-sense RNA 1 (AFAP1-AS1) mRNA in thyroid fine-needle aspiration (FNA) wash-out fluid for distinguishing benign from malignant thyroid nodules. MethodsThe patients with thyroid nodules who were treated in the Shenzhen Futian District Second People’s Hospital from January 2020 to June 2022 were collected. Before operation, the patients’ thyroid nodules were evaluated by the USE score and the AFAP1-AS1 mRNA in the thyroid FNA wash-out fluid was detected. The pathological result of the thyroid nodule after operation was as a gold standard for diagnosis of malignant thyroid nodules. The clinical diagnostic value of USE score combined with AFAP1-AS1 mRNA in the FNA wash-out fluid of the benign and malignant thyroid nodules were analyzed. ResultsA total of 174 thyroid nodules (124 patients) were detected in this study, of which 62 (45 patients) were histologically diagnosed as malignant. There was a statistical difference in the comparison of the composition ratio of USE score grading between the benign and malignant thyroid nodules (Z=8.82, P<0.001). The point of USE of the benign thyroid nodules was statistically lower than that of the malignant thyroid nodules [2.28±1.16 vs. 4.26±1.01, mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI)=2.98 (2.76, 3.20), t=30.85, P<0.001]. The AFAP1-AS1 mRNA in the FNA wash-out fluid of the malignant thyroid nodules was statistically higher than that of the benign thyroid nodules [1.45±0.27 vs. 1.13±0.16, MD (95%CI)=1.45(1.39, 1.50), t=10.69, P<0.001]. Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was a positive correlation between the USE score of thyroid nodules and the expression of AFAP1-AS1 mRNA in the FNA wash-out fluid (r=0.58, P<0.001). The sensitivity and specificity of USE score in combination with expression of AFAP1-AS1 mRNA in the FNA wash-out fluid for diagnosing the malignant thyroid nodules by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 93.5% and 88.4% respectively. The area under the ROC curve (95%CI) was 0.91 (0.86, 0.96). Conclusion According to preliminary results of this study, USE score combined with AFAP1-AS1 mRNA in the thyroid FNA wash-out fluid is more sensitive and shows a potential diagnostic performance than USE score or AFAP1-AS1 mRNA detection alone for distinguishing benign from malignant thyroid nodules.
Objective To compare differences of characteristics of ultrasonic elasticity imaging for benign and malignant small thyroid nodules with or without Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT). Methods The thyroid nodules with ≤1 cm size and the category 4A, 4B, 4C, and 5 of Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS) were included into this study, and a further examination of real-time elastography was performed. The final diagnosis was relied on the pathological diagnosis. The elasticity score and strain ratio (SR) were recorded and compared between these two groups, respectively. Results Of the 424 nodules, 103 nodules were accompanied with HT (thyroid nodule with HT group), 321 nodules were not accompanied with HT (thyroid nodule without HT group). In the thyroid nodule with HT group, the area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve (AUCs) of the elasticity score and the SR was 0.685 and 0.676, respectively; the optimal cut offs of the elasticity score and the SR was 3 points and 2.45 respectively, their corresponding sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy was 75.7%, 57.6%, 68.0% and 75.7%, 60.6%, 67.6%, respectively. In the thyroid nodule without HT group, the AUCs of the elasticity score and the SR was 0.692 and 0.692, respectively; the optimal cut offs of the elasticity score and the SR was 4 points and 2.84, respectively; their corresponding sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy was 57.5%, 74.2%, 69.2% and 76.1%, 59.7%, 67.7%, respectively. Conclusions Elastography is helpful in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant small thyroid nodules. While, standards of elasticity score and SR value in differential diagnosis are different between benign and malignant small thyroid nodules with HT and without HT, elasticity score and SR ratio decrease in benign and malignant small thyroid nodules with HT.
摘要:目的:采用Meta分析的方法评价甲状腺球蛋白在甲状腺良性疾病和甲状腺癌中的临床意义。方法:通过检索MEDLINE、EMBASE、The Cochrane Library, 中国生物医学文献数据库、中国学术期刊全文数据库和其他方式广泛收集文献。根据QUADAS质量评价标准评价纳入文献的质量,用MetaDisc软件对其敏感度、特异度、阳性似然比、阴性似然比等进行合并分析,并进行异质性检验,绘制综合受试者工作特征曲线(summary receiver operator characteristic curve,SROC)。结果:最终纳入5篇文献。合并敏感度0.60,合并特异度0.83,合并比值比2.68, SROC下面积(AUC)=0.645 4。结论:现有研究证实:甲状腺球蛋白在甲状腺癌中的阳性率是甲状腺良性疾病中的2.68倍,有统计学差异,但敏感度不高。尚需更多设计严谨、科学的临床试验进一步证实。Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the quality of the current studies involving the value of serum thyroglobulin in the diagnosis of thyroid benign diseases and thyroid carcinoma. Methods: We comprehensive collected current studies about serum thyroglobulin in thyroid benign diseases and thyroid carcinoma by computer and manual searches. QUADAS items were used for quality assessment in our systematic review. Metadisc software was used to analyze pooled sensitivity, pooled specificity,pooled positive likelihood ratio and pooled negative likelihood ratio,pooled diagnostic test odds ratio and heterogeneity test,and draw summary receiver operator characteristic curve (SROC). Results: Totally 5 studies were included. To identify thyroid benign diseases and thyroid carcinoma, pooled sensitivity was 0.60, pooled specificity was 0.83,pooled odds ratio was 2.68, the area under curve (AUC) was 0.645 4.Conclusion: The results of statistic alanalysis showed that the positive rate of thyroglobulin in thyroid carcinoma is 2.68 times more than in benign thyroid diseases. There was significant difference. But sensitivity was not high and reporting quality of the studies was relatively poor. The conclusion still need more clinical trials to confirm.
ObjectiveTo compare the diagnostic accuracy, sampling satisfaction, and safety of ultrasound-guided core needle biopsy (CNB) and fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNA) for thyroid nodules.MethodsThe databases of PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Wanfang, CNKI, and CBM were searched to collect the relevant studies on the diagnostic performance, sampling satisfaction, and safety of ultrasound-guided CNB and FNA for thyroid nodules. Revman 5.3 and Stata 15 software were used for meta-analysis.ResultsA total of 24 studies involving 25 388 patients were included. Meta analysis showed that: compared with CNB, FNA had poor diagnostic accuracy ［OR=0.26, 95%CI (0.15, 0.46), P<0.000 01］, poor sampling satisfaction ［OR=0.20, 95%CI (0.12, 0.33), P<0.000 01］, lower incidence of total complications ［OR=0.28, 95%CI (0.16, 0.50), P<0.000 1］, and lower incidence of bleeding after biopsy ［OR=0.62, 95%CI (0.48, 0.81), P=0.000 3］. However, there was no significant difference in the pain score ［WMD=–0.21, 95%CI (–0.57, 0.15), P=0.26］ between the two groups. Subgroup analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the accuracy of biopsy diagnosis of thyroid nodules with diameter less than 10 mm between the two groups ［OR=0.52, 95%CI (0.15, 1.81), P=0.30］, however, the accuracy of CNB in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules with diameter ≥ 10 mm was still better than FNA ［OR=0.26, 95%CI (0.12, 0.56), P=0.000 5］.ConclusionsCompared with FNA, ultrasound-guided CNB has a certain advantages in sampling satisfaction and the diagnosis accuracy of thyroid nodules with diameter ≥ 10 mm. CNB is better than FNA, but will bring higher risk of complication.
Objective To study the correlation between preoperative serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level and the malignant risk of thyroid nodules. Methods This study retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 959 patients with thyroid nodules. Ststistical analysis was conducted by SPSS 17.0 software. Results There were 959 patients with thyroid nodules, of which 746 cases were benign, and 213 cases were diagnosed as thyroid papillary carcinoma (PTC). The preoperative TSH level of PTC patients was higher than that with benign nodules [(2.32±1.65) mU/L vs. (1.76±1.20) mU/L, P<0.001]. Moreover, the higher preoperative TSH level was, the higher risk of diagnosed as PTC would be. There was no correlation between the preoperative TSH level and tumor diameter, number of lesions, and lymph nodes metastasis in PTC (P>0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that, the preoperative TSH level was an independent risk factor for PTC [OR=1.315, 95% CI was (1.171, 1.477), P<0.001]. The best critical value of TSH in the PTC diagnosis was 1.575 mU/L. At this point, the sensitivity was 62.0%, the specificity was 53.4%, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.602 (P<0.001). Conclusion There is a certain correlation between preoperative TSH level and malignant risk of thyroid nodules, and the risk increases with the raise of preoperative TSH level.
Ultrasound is the best way to diagnose thyroid nodules. To discriminate benign and malignant nodules, calcification is an important characteristic. However, calcification in ultrasonic images cannot be extracted accurately because of capsule wall and other internal tissue. In this paper, deep learning was first proposed to extract calcification, and two improved methods were proposed on the basis of Alexnet convolutional neural network. First, adding the corresponding anti-pooling (unpooling) and deconvolution layers (deconv2D) made the network to be trained for the required features and finally extract the calcification feature. Second, modifying the number of convolution templates and full connection layer nodes made feature extraction more refined. The final network was the combination of two improved methods above. To verify the method presented in this article, we got 8 416 images with calcification, and 10 844 without calcification. The result showed that the accuracy of the calcification extraction was 86% by using the improved Alexnet convolutional neural network. Compared with traditional methods, it has been improved greatly, which provides effective means for the identification of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.
Objective To summarize the ultrasonographic and pathological features of benign thyroid nodules in thyroid imaging reporting and data system (TI-RADS) 4 class. Methods The preoperative ultrasonographic features and pathological features of 46 patients (52 nodules) with TI-RADS 4 class benign thyroid nodules who got treatment in Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine between June 2016 and June 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Results Among the 52 thyroid nodules, 32 nodules (61.54%) were categorized as TI-RADS 4A, 12 nodules (23.08%) were categorized as TI-RADS 4B, and 8 nodules (15.38%) were categorized as TI-RADS 4C. On ultrasonographic images, the 52 thyroid nodules showed hypoechogenicity (90.38%), solid or predominantly solid (98.08%), nodules>1 cm in diameter (61.54%), defined margin (63.46%), microcalcification (50.00%), abundant or pointy blood flow (65.39%), morphological rule (90.38%), aspect ratio≤1 (92.31%), and no suspicious lymph nodes (86.54%). On histology, these thyroid nodules revealed nodular goiter with fibrosis or calcification (38.46%), nodular goiter with adenoma (30.77%), nodular goiter (9.61%), Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (17.31%), and thyroid follicular adenoma (3.85%). Conclusion Nodular goiter (thyroid nodules with fibrosis, calcification or adenomatoid hyperplasia), Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and thyroid follicular adenoma will lead to malignant signs on ultrasonographic images, we should refer to other examination methods to make combinated evaluation.
ObjectivesTo systematically review the efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided percutaneous microwave ablation versus traditional open surgical operation in the treatment of benign thyroid nodules.MethodsPubMed, The Cochrane Library, EMbase, CBM, CNKI and VIP databases were electronically searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on ultrasound-guided percutaneous microwave ablation versus traditional open surgery for benign thyroid nodules from inception to June 30th, 2018. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was then performed by RevMan 5.3 software.ResultsA total of 38 RCTs involving 4 078 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: ultrasound-guided percutaneous microwave ablation might be more effective than traditional open surgery for the treatment of benign thyroid nodules (RR=1.09, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.19, P=0.04), and compared with traditional open surgery, ultrasound-guided percutaneous microwave ablation reduced the rate of postoperative complication (RR=0.26, 95%CI 0.21 to 0.31, P<0.000 01), shortened postoperative hospital stay (MD=–3.60, 95%CI –4.04 to –3.15, P<0.000 01) and the time consumed in operation (MD=–48.79, 95%CI –54.16 to –43.41, P<0.000 01), and reduced operative blood loss (MD=–22.02, 95%CI–23.87 to –20.17, P<0.000 01). Meanwhile, microwave ablation reduced the elevated levels of serum IL-6 content (MD=–10.34, 95%CI –10.70 to –9.97, P<0.000 01), serum CRP content (MD=–9.70, 95%CI –10.95 to –8.44, P<0.000 01) and serum TNF-α content (MD=–7.94, 95%CI –9.00 to –6.88, P<0.000 01).ConclusionsCurrent evidence shows that ultrasound-guided percutaneous microwave ablation may improve clinical efficacy and can reduce postoperative complications, bleeding volume, operation time, hospitalization days and postoperative inflammatory reaction. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high quality studies are required to verify above conclusions.