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The incidence rates of thyroid cancers have increased in the past decade. Additionally, up
to 68% of people have thyroid nodules. Consequently, a precise evaluation of thyroid nodules
is very important and can avoid unnecessary biopsy of benign nodules. Shear wave
elastography(SWE), a novel ultrasound-based elastographic method, is a new real-time,
quantitative, operator-independent, and reproducible technique. Briefly, shear wave
elastography uses a radiation force produced by an ultrasonic beam to stress tissues and
ultrafast sonographic tracking techniques to measure the speed of shear waves. Based on the
Young modulus formula, tissue elasticity can be derived from the shear wave propagation
speed, and a real-time color-coded elastogram can be displayed, showing softer tissue in
blue and stiffer tissue in red.
There are lots of research confirmed that SWE has a certain value in the diagnosis of
thyroid carcinoma. These studies include prospective studies and retrospective studies, but
both belong to a single center study. It has not been applied to the study of the
multicenter of thyroid disease.
The main purpose of the study is to assess the performance of SWE for identification of
benign and malignant thyroid nodules and calculate the optimal cutoff value for each
parameter in multicenter study; the secondary purpose is to evaluate the application value
of SWE for uncertain nodules by FNA.