Role of Color Doppler Ultrasonography in the Evaluation of Gold thyroid Nodules

Abstract

The goal of our study is to evaluate the usefulness of Color Doppler Sonographic examination of thyroid gland with cold nodules. Whether it adds new useful data to that of gray scale ultrasonography that can help in the differentiation of benign from malignant lesions. We evaluated 100 patients "::ith cold thyroid nodules after scintigraphic examination. They included 10 males and 90 females. Their age ranged from 8- 79 years with mean age of 43 years. Ulrasonographic criteria of the nodules were recorded. And Color Doppler findings were categorized in 3 groups: o Avascular nodules -------------------------------------------- (Type 1). o Nodules with perinodular Vessels only---------------- (Type II). o Nodules with intranodular & perinodular Vessels --(Type Ill). The results showed the following:

All malignant cases ( 10 cases) were found to have type Ill vascularity with irregular tortuous vessels and arteriovenous shunting. However. larger number of malignant cases should be evaluated to confirm the results statistically. All cases with type II and I were benign. They were present in only 62.2 %of benign lesions.