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Effect of the size of benign thyroid degenerative nodules on ACR TI-RADS categories

  • Original Article–Breast & Thyroid
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A Letter to the Editor to this article was published on 25 May 2022

Abstract

Purpose

Our study aimed to identify ultrasound characteristics of benign thyroid degenerative nodules and reveal the correlation between their sizes and 2017 ACR Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS) categories.

Methods

A total of 174 thyroid degenerative nodules were divided into three groups: 0.5–1 cm group (70 nodules), 1–2 cm group (27 nodules), and > 2 cm group (77 nodules). The ultrasound appearance of each nodule was evaluated, and the ACR TI-RADS scores and levels of the nodules were also calculated and compared among the three groups.

Results

The ultrasound appearance of degenerative nodules of different sizes is diversified, and the 0.5–1 cm group tended to have more malignant features and higher TI-RADS scores and categories. The scatterplot of Spearman correlation showed a significant negative correlation between the nodule sizes and TI-RADS categories.

Conclusion

The 2017 ACR TI-RADS, which recommends fine-needle aspiration according to the nodule size and category, is still useful in managing these nodules, and following the clinical recommendations of ACR TI-RADS is necessary.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31971169), National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC0116000) and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (7182180).

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Author notes

  1. Yan Yan and Fan Zhang have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, 49 North Garden Rd., Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, People’s Republic of China

    Yan Yan, Fan Zhang, Huiyu Ge, Liying Miao & Lulu Zhang

  2. Department of Ultrasound, Civil Aviation General Hospital, 1 Chaowai Gaojing Jia, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100123, People’s Republic of China

    Yan Yan, Ying Xiong, Qiang Fu & Hao Liu

Authors
  1. Yan Yan
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  2. Fan Zhang
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  3. Huiyu Ge
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  5. Lulu Zhang
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  8. Hao Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huiyu Ge.

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Conflict of interest

Yan Yan, Fan Zhang, Huiyu Ge, Liying Miao, Lulu Zhang, Ying Xiong, Qiang Fu, and Hao Liu declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical statements

This study was approved by the institutional review board, who waived the requirement for informed consent because of the retrospective nature of this study.

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Yan, Y., Zhang, F., Ge, H. et al. Effect of the size of benign thyroid degenerative nodules on ACR TI-RADS categories. J Med Ultrasonics 49, 71–76 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-021-01163-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-021-01163-6

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