Clinical implication of texture analysis as a prognostic factor of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma

Purpose: We investigated the value of texture analysis as a prognostic factor for pathologic extrathyroidal extension, lymph node metastasis, and high TNM stage. Methods: This retrospective study was approved by the Institutional Review Board, and the requirement to obtain informed consent was waived. 363 patients (mean age, 43.8 ± 11.3 years; range, 16 – 72 years) who underwent staging US and subsequent thyroidectomy for conventional PTMC ≤10 mm between May and July 2013 were included. Each PTMC was manually segmented and its histogram parameters (Mean, Standard deviation, Skewness, Kurtosis, and Entropy) were…