Contrast-enhanced ultrasound characteristics of papillary thyroid carcinoma and its relationship with microvessel density and microvessel area

Objective To explore the correlation between quantitative parameters of blood perfusion with contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and microvessel density (MVD), microvessel area (MVA) in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). And to investigate the value of CEUS in evaluating the angiogenesis in PTC before operation. Methods Totally 69 cases of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma were selected from April 2014 to October 2016 in the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University. The CEUS characteristics of 69 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma confirmed by pathology were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into three groups according to maximum diameter of lesions ( 2.0 cm group), and two groups according to pathologic reports (neck lymph node metastatic and nonmetastatic groups). The blood perfusion parameters between or among different groups were evaluated by ″t″test or one-way ANOVA. Immunohistochemical staining were performed to evaluate the MVD, MVA in the surgical specimens, and the correlation of quantitative parameters with MVD, MVA were assessed by Spearman. Results (1) Peak Intensity (Peak), area under the curve (AUC), MVD and MVA of thyroid carcinoma were lower than the surrounding normal thyroid tissue (14.95±4.96 vs 22.67±6.11, 970.01±263.20 vs 1798.35±563.67, 118.91±31.32 vs 206.27±39.58, 8.58±2.68 vs 18.47±3.13), and the differences were statistically significant (t=-8.700, -11.061, -14.377 and -20.532, all P 0.05). Conclusions The values of Peak and AUC calculated from CEUS were correlated to MVD and MVA. CEUS may be used to evaluated the angiogenesis of PTC before operation. And CEUS is helpful for prediction of prognosis of PTC. Key words: Thyroid neoplasms; Ultrasonography; Microvessels