CLINICAL EVALUATION OF REAL-TIME TISSUE ELASTOGRAPHY (RTE) FOR THE DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF THYROID FOLLICULAR LESIONS

Purpose: The diagnosis and management of follicular carcinoma of the thyroid gland remains a controversial topic. Fine needle aspiration, although very sensitive with other types of thyroid cancer, has limited accuracy with follicular lesions. Color-Doppler (CD) imaging has been expected for the differential diagnosis between follicular adenoma and follicular carcinoma, otherwise, the findings obtained by CD imaging could not easily confirmed by cytological and pathological methods. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of Real-time tissue Elastography (RTE) imaging for the differential d…