The application of Virtual Touch tissue quantification (VTQ) in diagnosis of thyroid lesions: a preliminary study.
OBJECTIVE
Virtual Touch tissue quantification (VTQ) is a quantified ultrasound (US) acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging method that provides numerical measurements (wave-velocity values) of tissue stiffness. The purpose of this study was to detect whether VTQ could be applied to differentiate between benign and malignant thyroid lesions.


METHODS
Healthy subjects' thyroid tissue and thyroid lesions were examined by VTQ to analyze their elasticity after conventional ultrasound. All the thyroid lesions were analyzed pathologically after surgery and correlated the VTQ values with the pathological results.


RESULTS
The VTQ value of healthy thyroid tissue, the benign lesions, and the malignant lesions were 1.69 ± 0.41 m/s, 2.03 ± 0.42 m/s, and 3.10 ± 1.08 m/s, respectively. The VTQ value of the malignant lesions was higher than that of the healthy thyroid tissue and the benign lesions (both p<0.001). The VTQ value of the benign lesions was higher than that of the healthy thyroid tissue (p<0.001). With a cutoff value of 2.42 m/s, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value for differentiating between the benign and the malignancy lesions were 80.00%, 89.23%, 87.05%, 69.56%, and 93.54%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
VTQ could provide quantitative elasticity measurements, which might play an important role in differentiating between benign and malignant thyroid lesions.
In-Patient Ultrasound Department, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150086, China.
Xiu-Juan
XJ
Hou
Ai-Xia
AX
Sun
Xian-Li
XL
Zhou
Qiao
Q
Ji
Hong-Bo
HB
Wang
Hong
H
Wei
Jia-Wei
JW
Sun
Han
H
Liu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D055815:Young Adult