Research Article - Biomedical Research (2017) Volume 28, Issue 14

Hashimoto's thyroiditis shows characteristics of increased thyroid volume, decreased echo and increased blood flow signals using ultrasound gray-scale intensity technology

Objective: Grey-scale intensity technology of ultrasound could test the specific quantization of grey-scale intensity of region of interest, which represented the respective characteristics of different pathological tissue changes. This study was to investigate the clinical value of grey-scale intensity quantitation analysis, also the 2D image and the distribution of blood flow by ultrasound in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis patients.

Methods: A total of 55 patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in our hospital from January 2012 to June 2014 were enrolled, and 50 healthy cases were enrolled as controls. LOGIQ E9 color Doppler ultrasonic diagnostic instrument (5.5-10.0 MHz) was used to examine thyroid, and the Grey-Scale Intensity of region of interest were measured.

Results: There were significant differences of the size, internal echo, blood flow distribution, grey-scale intensity value between Hashimoto’s thyroiditis group and control group. The area under curve of greyscale intensity used for diagnosis of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis was 0.870. When the cut-off value of greyscale intensity used for Hashimoto’s thyroiditis diagnosis was -31.55 DB, the sensitivity was 85.5%, the specificity was 72.0% and the accuracy is 80.0%.

Conclusions: The majority of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis patients had the characteristic of increased thyroid volume, decreased echo and increased blood flow signals. Grey-scale intensity quantitation analysis of ultrasound has significant differences between Hashimoto’s thyroiditis group and normal group, Grey-scale intensity quantitative analysis technology has high clinical value.

Author(s): Yongmei Wang, Zhengmin Ruan, Junxia Zhang, Tianhua Liu, Mei Wu, Guangrui Shao

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