Role of multi-modality functional imaging in differentiation between benign and malignant thyroid F-fluorodeoxyglucose incidentaloma.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the diagnostic performance of multi-modality functional imaging in differentiating malignant and benign thyroid F-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG) incidentaloma.

METHODS

This study included 87 patients with thyroid F-FDG incidentalomas detected by F-FDG- positron emission tomography/computed tomography (F-FDG-PET/CT) and diagnosed at surgery or biopsy, who received F-FDG-PET/CT, diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DWI) and ultrasound elastography (USE). The metabolic tumor volume (MTV), total lesion glycolysis (TLG), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values and ultrasound elasticity scores of thyroid F-FDG incidentalomas were measured and compared in benign and malignant thyroid incidentalomas. The differences of malignant and benign thyroid incidentalomas were tested by χ test, Fisher's exact test, t test, or Mann-Whitney U test. The diagnostic performance was evaluated and optimal cut-off values were determined in distinguishing malignant from benign thyroid incidentalomas by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.

RESULTS

MTV, TLG and USE scores of malignant thyroid incidentalomas were significantly higher than benign; but ADC value was significantly lower. We defined the functional imaging parameters TLG < 2.48, ADC > 1.80 × 10mm/s, and USE score of 1 as markers of benign thyroid incidentalomas and each scored -1 point; TLG ≥ 2.48, ADC ≤ 1.80 × 10mm/s, and USE score of 4 as markers of malignancy and each scored 1 point. Combined multi-functional imaging parameters achieved the highest performance (84.6% sensitivity and 97.1% specificity) for distinguish malignant from benign thyroid incidentaloma with AUC 0.957 (95% CI 0.917, 0.997).

CONCLUSIONS

Functional imaging might help to distinguishing malignant from benign thyroid F-FDG incidentalomas, and combined multi-functional imaging parameters could improve it.