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Analysis of tissue surrounding thyroid nodules by ultrasound digital images

  • Endocrine Methods and Techniques
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Abstract

Since US is not easily reproducible, the digital image analysis (IA) has been proposed so that the image evaluation is not subjective. In fact, IA meets the criteria of objectivity, accurateness, and reproducibility by a matrix of pixels whose value is displayed in a gray level. This study aims at evaluating via IA the tissue surrounding a thyroid nodule (backyard tissue, BT) from goitres with benign (b-BT) and malignant (m-BT) lesions. Sixty-nine US images of thyroid nodules surrounded by adequate thyroid tissue was classified as normoechoic and homogeneous were enrolled as study group. Forty-three US images from normal thyroid (NT) glands were included as controls. Digital images of 800 × 652 pixels were acquired at a resolution of eight bits with a 256 gray levels depth. By one-way ANOVA, the 43 NT glands were not statistically different (P = 0.91). Mean gray level of normal glands was significantly higher than b-BT (P = 0.026), and m-BT (P = 0.0001), while no difference was found between b-BT and m-BT (P = 0.321). NT tissue boundary external to the nodule was found at 6.0 ± 0.5 mm in cancers and 4.0 ± 0.5 mm in benignancies (P = 0.001). These data should indicate that the tissue surrounding a thyroid nodule may be damaged even when assessed as normal by US. This is of interest to investigate the extranodular effects of thyroid tumors.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Endocrinology and Diabetology, Ospedale Israelitico of Rome, Via Fulda, 14, 00148, Rome, Italy

    Pierpaolo Trimboli

  2. Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Fabiano Bini & Franco Marinozzi

  3. EndocrinologiaOggi, Rome, Italy

    Massimiliano Andrioli

  4. Department of Nuclear Medicine and Thyroid Centre, Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Bellinzona, Switzerland

    Luca Giovanella & Luca Ceriani

  5. Section of Ultrasonography, Ospedale Israelitico of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Maria Francesca Thorel

  6. Department of Surgical and Medical Sciences, Ospedale S. Andrea, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Stefano Valabrega

  7. Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Andrea Lenzi & Francesco Romanelli

  8. Department of Radiological Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Francesco Maria Drudi

Authors
  1. Pierpaolo Trimboli
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  2. Fabiano Bini
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  3. Massimiliano Andrioli
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  4. Luca Giovanella
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  5. Maria Francesca Thorel
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  6. Luca Ceriani
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  7. Stefano Valabrega
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  8. Andrea Lenzi
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  9. Francesco Maria Drudi
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  10. Franco Marinozzi
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  11. Francesco Romanelli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pierpaolo Trimboli.

Additional information

P. Trimboli and F. Bini contributed equally to this work.

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Trimboli, P., Bini, F., Andrioli, M. et al. Analysis of tissue surrounding thyroid nodules by ultrasound digital images. Endocrine 48, 434–438 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-014-0344-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-014-0344-5

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