Comparative analysis on CUES and ECT in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules in low echo level

Objective: To assess the value of CEUS and ECT in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules in low echo level. Methods: Totally 186 benign or malignant thyroid nodules verified with pathology in low echo level were comparatively observed by using ECT and CEUS. The diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accordance rate of the two methods were evaluated. Meanwhile, ROC curves were drawn and the areas under the curves were compared. Results: Of the 186 nodules, 117 were benign thyroid nodules and 69 were malignant thyroid nodules. Most benign nodules showed hyper or equal enhancement, while most malignant thyroid nodules showed hypo-enhancement. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy rate of CEUS was 86.96% (60/69), 88.89% (104/117), 82.19% (60/73), 92.04% (104/113) and 88.17% (164/186), respectively, while for ECT was 60.87%(42/69), 78.63% (92/117), 62.69% (42/67), 77.31% (92/119) and 72.04% (134/186), respectively. There was statistical difference for each index between the two methods (all P<0.05). The area under ROC curve of the two methods was 0.950 and 0.779, respectively (P<0.05). Conclusion: Compared with ECT, CEUS has higher differential diagnosis value of benign and malignant thyroid nodules in low echo level.