Kelly BS, et al. – A retrospective review was to designed to distinguish whether lesions within a multinodular goiter (MNG) without suspicious features can be followed with ultrasound rather than biopsied as is recommended for single nodules. It was considered that ultrasound can be used to estimate risk of neoplasia in MNG. In the absence of suspicious radiological findings, follow–up with ultrasound rather than fine needle aspiration biopsy may be appropriate in patients who have a low clinical suspicion for neoplasia.

Methods

• Researchers retrospectively analyzed pathology records for proven MNGs over a 5-year period.
• They distinguished a sum of 293 cases.
• For each case, they distinguished FNAB, prebiopsy ultrasound images, and reports.
• They assessed images for sonographically suspicious criteria guided by TI-RADS.
• They applied logistic regression to determine if any sonographic features were associated with neoplasia.
• They computed odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals.

Results

• In this analysis, 14 (4.7%) were neoplastic out of 293 samples,.
• In context of the findings, having no suspicious features conferred an average risk of 0.0339 (95% confidence interval: 0.02831-0.04087) of neoplasia.
• The data suggested that tisk of neoplasm significantly increased by having 1 and >1 suspicious feature (P < .001).
• Regarding cytological results, of 237 patients with Thy-2 cytology, 159 were followed up and 8 had a neoplasm.