title: Acoustic Structure Quantification Analysis of the Thyroid in Patients with Diffuse Autoimmune Thyroid Disease.
abstract: The aim of this study was to assess whether acoustic structure quantification (ASQ) can differentiate normal from pathological thyroid parenchyma in patients with diffuse autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). We evaluated 83 subjects (72 [87%] women and 11 [13%] men) aged 19 to 94 years with a mean age of 53 years. We performed a prospective study (from March 2011 to November 2014) that included 43 (52%) patients with chronic autoimmune thyroiditis (CAT), 22 (26%) patients with Graves' disease (GD), and 18 (22%) healthy volunteers. The ASQ values were significantly lower in normal subjects than in subjects with CAT and GD (p < 0.001). In contrast, the differences between the GD and the CAT patients (p = 0.23) were not statistically significant. The optimal cutoff ASQ value for which the sum of sensitivity and specificity was the highest for the prediction of diffuse thyroid pathology was 103 (95% confidence interval = [0.79, 0.95]). At this cutoff value, the sensitivity was 83% and the specificity was 89%. Our findings suggest that ASQ is a useful method for the assessment of the thyroid in patients with AITD.
authors: Institute of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Hanusch Hospital, Teaching Hospital of Medical University of Vienna, Austria shahin.zandieh@icloud.com.
authors: Shahin
authors: S
authors: Zandieh
authors: Institute of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Hanusch Hospital, Teaching Hospital of Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors: Reinhard
authors: R
authors: Bernt
authors: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Osteology at the Hanusch Hospital of WGKK; Department of Internal Medicine, Hanusch Hospital, Teaching Hospital of Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors: Jochen
authors: J
authors: Zwerina
authors: Institute of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Hanusch Hospital, Teaching Hospital of Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
authors: Joerg
authors: J
authors: Haller
authors: Institute of Nuclear Medicine with PET-Center, Wilhelminen Hospital, Teaching Hospital of Medical University of Vienna, Austria, Austria.
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Knoll
authors: Department of Ophthalmology, Paracelsus Medical University of Salzburg, Austria.
authors: Orang
authors: O
authors: Seyeddain
authors: Institute of Nuclear Medicine with PET-Center, Wilhelminen Hospital, Teaching Hospital of Medical University of Vienna, Austria, Austria.
authors: Siroos
authors: S
authors: Mirzaei
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006111:Graves Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013967:Thyroiditis, Autoimmune / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D018615:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: autoimmune thyroid disease; instrumentation; thyroid; tissue characterization; ultrasound