THYROID NODULES: EVALUATION WITH COLOR DOPPLER ULTRASONOGRAPHY.

Abstract

he aim of this study was to assess prospectively the value of thyroid Color Doppler sonographic examination of the patients with a solitary thyroid nodule and correlation with the fine needle aspiration cytology.
Sixty patients with a solitary thyroid nodule underwent Color Doppler sonography with 7.5 MHz transducer which proved histologically to be 10 (15%) malignant and 50 (85%) benign nodules. Perinodular color flow signal were depicted in 6 out of 10 (60%) malignant nodules and 29 out of 50 (58%) benign lesions. Intranodular color flow signal were exhibited in 3 out of 10 (33%) and 2 out of 50 (4%) of malignant and benign lesions respectively. This left 20 out of 60 (33%) to have absence of color flow signal. The malignant nodule showed greater tendency to exhibit intranodular color flow signal than benign lesion but perinodular color flow signal was found in both benign and malignant nodule equally. The quantitative evaluation of the peak flow velocity obtained from the Doppler wave form shows no significant difference of the peak flow velocity between benign and malignant lesion (mean peak flow velocity 15.85 cm/sec of malignant nodule and 13.37 cm/sec of benign lesion.