Acoustic radiation force impulse induced strain elastography and point shear wave elastography for evaluation of thyroid nodules

The aim of the study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) induced strain elastography (SE), point shear wave elastography (p-SWE), and their combined use in differentiating thyroid nodules. This retrospective study included 155 thyroid nodules (94 benign and 61 malignant) in 136 patients. Ultrasound, ARFI-induced SE and p-SWE were performed on each nodule. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analyses were performed to assess the diagnostic efficacy of ARFI-induced SE, p-SWE and their combined use to distinguish benign from malignant thyroid nodules with histological results used as the reference standard. The areas under the ROC for ARFI-induced SE, p-SWE, and their combined use were 0.828, 0.829, and 0.840, respectively (both P > 0.05). The specificity of ARFI-induced SE was higher than that of p-SWE as well as their combined use (both P < 0.05). The combination of the two methods significantly improved the diagnostic sensitivity and NPV compared with either ARFI-induced SE or p-SWE alone (both P < 0.05). For nodules ≤ 10 mm, the combination of the two methods significantly improved the diagnostic sensitivity only. For nodules > 10 mm, there were no significant differences in sensitivity and NPV among the three methods in differentiating thyroid nodules (all P > 0.05). In conclusions, ARFI-induced SE and p-SWE are both valuable tools for detecting malignant thyroid nodules. The combined use of ARFI-induced SE and p-SWE improves the diagnostic sensitivity and NPV significantly whereas ARFI-induced SE alone achieves the highest specificity.