Comparison of the diagnostic performance and clinical role of different ultrasound-based thyroid malignancy risk stratification systems for medullary thyroid carcinoma

This study sought to investigate the applicability of different ultrasound (US) thyroid risk stratification systems in diagnosing medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) and determining the need for biopsy. In total, 34 MTC nodules, 54 papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) nodules, and 62 benign thyroid nodules were examined in this study. All the diagnoses were histopathologically confirmed postoperatively. All the thyroid nodule sonographic features were recorded and categorized by 2 independent reviewers according to the Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TIRADS) of the American College of Radiology (ACR), the American Thyroid Association (ATA) guidelines, the European Thyroid Association (EU) TIRADS, the Kwak-TIRADS, and the Chinese TIRADS (C-TIRADS). The sonographic differences and risk stratifications of the MTCs, PTCs, and benign thyroid nodules were analyzed. The diagnostic performance and recommended biopsy rates for each classification system were evaluated. The risk stratifications of MTCs were all higher than the benign thyroid nodules (P