The Results Of The Real-time Shear Wave Elastography On Thyroid Tissues In Patients With Primary Hyperthyroidism And Its Correlation With Thyroid Stimulating Hormone

Background and purpose:Ultrasound as the preferred method in the diagnosis of thyroid disease, has become the most effective screenin method in the clinical evaltion and treatment of thyroid disease。Ultrasound elastography based on the conventional ultrasound, displays the tissue stiffness, providing biological information of the organization, to make up for the X-ray, conventional ultrasound imaging, CT、MRI and other conventional imaging cannot provide inadequate tissue stiffness。Ultrasond elastography has been applied to the diagnosis of breast、prostate、thyroid、liver、 lymph nodes and other organs, and the relevant elasticity imaging technology applied in the vagina, for the diagnosis of uterine fibroids and endometriosis。Meanwhile ultrasound elastography has been mostly used for the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant thyroid nodules, but there are few for the diagnosis of diffuse thyroid disease。Therefore, the main objective of this study was to investigate the primary hyperthyroidism thyroid tissue in patients with real time shear wave elastography, displays as Young’s modulus, and the relationship of elasticity values and serum thyroid-stimulating hormone。Meanwhile compare the Young’s modulus of the different frequencies or depth, and whether they have some differences。 Materials and methods:Using real-time shear wave elastography in50patients (mean age45.8±15.6years, females32cases, males18cases), with clinically diagnosis of PTH and40healthy volunteers (mean age38±12.1years old,22females,18males), meansure the average Young’s modulus, and analysisi the correlation of average Young’s modulus and serum TSH。All subjects underwent bilateral leaf longitudinal section and cross section measured the average Young’s modulus, and randomly selected10cases of PHT patients and healthy volunteers, using a convex array probe(3-12MHz) and linear array probe (4-15MHz), test various depths thyroid tissue the average Young’s modulus。Results:①The average Young’s modulus between convex array probe and linear array probe has no statistically difference, but the success rate of elastic color chart using the convex array probe was higher than the linear array probe (the difference was statistically significant,P<0.05), while in healthy volunteers elastic color chart success rate was no significant difference;②the difference between the cross-section and longitudinal section of the average Young’s modulus was no statistical significance;③the difference of the Young’s modulus of different depths of thyroid was not statistically significant(P>0.05);④PHT patients with thyroid tissue were lower than the corresponding parts of the normal control group, the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).PHT thyroid tissue in patients with a mean Young’s modulus of serum TSH to a certain extent in a positive correlation.Conclusion:Real-time shear wave elastography technique for thyroid tissue in patients with PHT Young’s modulus measurements can be used as an indicator of the diagnosis of PHT, may indirectly reflect PHT in serum TSH levels for the treatment of patients with PHT provide some clinic reference value.