title: Roles of ultrasound and power Doppler ultrasound for diagnosis of Hashimoto thyroiditis in anti-thyroid marker-positive euthyroid subjects.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study was performed to investigate the contribution of ultrasonographic (US) findings to diagnosis in anti-thyroid marker-positive patients with normal hormone levels among euthyroid subjects with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT).
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty premenopausal euthyroid patients with a median age of 32 years (range, 20-44 years) with normal levels of free triiodothyronine (FT3) and free thyroxine (FT4), and elevated anti-thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibodies were enrolled in this study. A control group of 46 healthy individuals with a median age of 29 years (range, 18-43 years) was composed of randomly selected volunteers. The examinations included basic morphometric (measurement of thyroid gland dimensions in three axes, the volume of each thyroid lobe, and the total thyroid volume), morphological grayscale imaging (echogenicity, nodularity, septations, undulation of the margins, and reactive lymph nodes), and thyroid gland vascularity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no statistically significant differences in morphometric parameters of the thyroid gland between the study and control groups. There were significant differences in the presence of nodularity, undulation of the gland margins, septations inside the glands, infrathyroidal and/or pretracheal reactive lymph nodes, and increased vascularity on power Doppler imaging between the groups. The use of all parameters together yielded a sensitivity of 90%, specificity of 84.8%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 83.7%, negative predictive value (NPV) of 90.7%, and accuracy of 87.2% for diagnosis of HT.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  US and power Doppler US are helpful for the diagnosis of HT in anti-thyroid marker-positive patients with normal thyroid hormone levels.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Medicine, Izmir 35340, Turkey ; 2 Division of Endocrinology of Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University Medical School, Inciralti, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Isin
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ceylan
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Medicine, Izmir 35340, Turkey ; 2 Division of Endocrinology of Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University Medical School, Inciralti, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Serkan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yener
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Medicine, Izmir 35340, Turkey ; 2 Division of Endocrinology of Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University Medical School, Inciralti, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Firat
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bayraktar
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Medicine, Izmir 35340, Turkey ; 2 Division of Endocrinology of Metabolism, Department of Internal Medicine, Dokuz Eylul University Medical School, Inciralti, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Secil
keywords: Doppler ultrasound; Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT); thyroid nodules; thyroid ultrasound