Role of diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging in differentiation of benign and malignant thyroid nodules

Abstract

Objective: Is to evaluate the potential application of diffusion-weighted echo planar imaging in the differentiation of benign and malignant thyroid nodules in patients referred for FNAC and to correlate the imaging patterns & values of these lesions with their pathological nature. Subjects and methods: 30 patients were included in a retrospective study (10 Males & 20 Females)0.17 cases (56.7%) were new cases of thyroid nodules and 13 cases (43.3%) were recurrent cases post total thyroidectomy. The patients' ages ranged from 29 to73 years with a mean age ± SD (53.8 ± 13.1 years). All patients performed MRI examination and underwent an ultrasound-guided FNAC. Results: 17 cases were positive for malignancy (56.7%) while 13 cases were negative (43.3%). The statistical analysis in this study revealed that the ADC values were significantly (P-value < 0.001) lower in malignant lesions. The ADC cutoff value differentiating the benign and the malignant lesions was 1.15; this had 88.2% and 92.3% sensitivity and specificity respectively. Conclusions: Our study concluded that the DW-MRI has a useful role in the assessment of the thyroid nodules and post thyroidectomy recurrent nodules providing a good determining tool by the measurement of the ADC value, thus differentiating the benign and malignant nodules. Keywords: Thyroid Gland, Thyroid Nodules, Diffusion Weighted MRI- FNAC