Objective. The intend of the present study was to assess the diagnostic performance of strain elastography in investigating the thyroid nodule malignancy taking the surgical biopsy as a gold standard reference test.
Methods. The study included 120 patients with 123 thyroid nodules, of which 67 had total thyroidectomy. The American College of Radiology Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data Systems (ACR-TIRADS) were evaluated for all nodules. All suspicious nodules were referred for a fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) if they fulfilled the required size. Strain elastography was performed for each suspicious nodule. Ultrasound-guided FNAC was performed for all suspicious nodules. Total thyroidectomy was performed in those whom the suspicious nodules were proven by FNAC.
Results. Strain ratio had a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and diagnostic accuracy of 84%, 81%, 95%, 85%, and 84%, respectively, with a cut point 1.96. Elasticity score had a sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and diagnostic accuracy of 100%, 80%, 95%, 85% and 87%, respectively, with a cut point 0.96. The elasticity score had a statistically significantly odds ratio for detecting the benignity 3.9 C. I (1.6–9.3).
Conclusion. Strain elastography has a high diagnostic performance in detecting the malignant as well as benign nodules, thus it can limit the rate of unneeded FNAC or surgery especially among B3 and B4 groups with indeterminate cytology.
