Ultrasonographic and pathological features of surgically excised thyroid nodules : a cross-sectional study

Introduction: Thyroid nodules are commonly encountered in clinical practice and require laboratory and radiological investigations for their evaluation. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between ultrasonographic and pathological features of thyroid nodules and to determine the diagnostic accuracy of cytological assessment. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Ultrasound and pathology reports were retrospectively reviewed for all patients who had their nodules excised from January 2016 to December 2018. All statistical analyses were conducted using Prism 7 (Graph Pad software, version 7) Results: A total of 287 patients had thyroid surgery during the study period but only 190 of them had an ultrasonographic assessment. Of the 190, 135 (71%) were diagnosed with benign pathologies. Multinodular goitre (n=86, 63.7%) was the most common benign pathology, whereas papillary thyroid carcinoma (n=48, 87.2%) was the most common malignant pathology. Most cases affected females (n=171), with a female-to-male ratio of 9:1. Non-cystic nodules, nodules ≥ 1cm, presence of calcification, increased vascularity and hypoechogenicity were significantly different between benign and malignant nodules. Conclusion: Ultrasonographic features and cytological assessment are useful in evaluating thyroid nodules. However, histological analysis may be inevitable as none of these diagnostic techniques are enough to exclude thyroid cancer.