The Analysis of the Evaluation of Malignancy of Thyroid Nodular Formations by Ultrasound Diagnosis Physicians

Abstract

Objective: to study evaluation performance of malignancy of thyroid nodular formations by ultrasound specialists. Materials and methods. There were made the interactive trainings within the relevant scientific forums of different countries. 19 pictures of morphologically verified thyroid nodules were consistently represented by respondents and each of them were offered to be assessed as benign or malignant one, or to recognize the failure of the ultrasound data to assess the malignancy (nodes were called questionable) by making the appropriate notes on the standard form. The results were processed by standard methods of nonparametric statistics. Results. Number of correct answers per respondent ranged from 3 to 14, median was 8, Q1-Q3, respectively, were 6 and 9, fashion was 8, and averaged 8.0 ± 2.31. It was found that, in determining of malignancy on ultrasonic static image frequency of correct answers reaches 41.4%, for malignant formations it was 53.0%, and for doubtful and benign ones it was not significantly higher than the probability of a random selection - respectively, 34.3% and 35.2%. As detected regularities were typical for groups of experts from different countries, the identified trends can be determined by the general psychological legitimacies, and the lack of a unified standardized system of echographic risk assessment of malignancy, which is clear to ultrasound specialists and clinicians. Conclusion. The positive predictive value of the conclusion about the benign nodule was 25.0%, about the doubtful one was 41.0%, about malignant one was 57.3%. For objectification of ultrasound research we recommended the use of THIRADS classification, which is based on the totality of ultrasound signs, ranging thyroid nodules by malignancy risk.