Ultrasound Features of Thyroid Lesions

Abstract

There are many different features indicating a certain benign or malignant tumor type, but many of these are overlapping signs. Combining several features is considered to give the best result. Ultrasound features of benign lesions are often described as a diffusely enlarged gland, a well-circumscribed inhomogeneous hyper- or isoechoic solid lesion, a semi-solid or predominantly cystic lesion, multinodular lesions, and so forth. US features suggestive of malignant thyroid tumors have been described as follows: microcalcifications, hypoechogenicity, a taller than wide lesion, predominantly solid composition, irregular borders, absence of peripheral halo, intranodular hypervascularity, and regional lymphadenopathy [4,8,9]. No US feature has both a high sensitivity and a high positive predictive value for thyroid carcinoma. The different malignant tumors have to some degree a different appearance on US.