Differential diagnosis and feature visualization for thyroid nodules using computer-aided ultrasonic diagnosis system: initial clinical assessment

BMC Medical Imaging

Research

Ying Zhang¹  Qing Song¹  Ya-Qiong Zhu¹  Yu Lan¹  Yan Zhang¹  Ming-Bo Zhang¹  Fang Xie¹  Yu-Kun Luo¹  Xiao-Qi Tian¹  Zhuang Jin¹ 

[1] Department of Ultrasound, First Medical Center, Chinese PLA General Hospital, No. 28, Fuxing Road, Haidian District, 100853, Beijing, China;

关键词: Computer-aided diagnosis;    Thyroid nodule;    Ultrasonography;    Diagnostic efficacy;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12880-022-00874-7

 received in 2022-03-07, accepted in 2022-08-16,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundTo assess the diagnostic efficacy of the computer-aided ultrasonic diagnosis system (CAD system) in differentiating benign and malignant thyroid nodules.MethodsThe images of 296 thyroid nodules were included in validation sets. The diagnostic efficacy of the CAD system was compared with that of junior physicians and senior physicians, as well as that of the combination diagnosis of the CAD system with junior physicians. The diagnostic efficacy of the CAD system for different sizes of thyroid nodules was compared.ResultsThe diagnostic sensitivity and accuracy of the CAD system were higher than those of junior physicians (83.4% vs. 72.2%, 73.0% vs. 69.6%), but the diagnostic specificity of the CAD system was lower than that of junior physicians (62.1% vs. 66.9%). The diagnostic accuracy of the CAD system was lower than that of senior physicians (73.0% vs. 83.8%). However, the combination diagnosis of the CAD system with junior physicians had higher accuracy (81.8%) and AUC (0.842) than those of either the CAD system or junior physicians alone, and comparable diagnostic performance with those of senior physicians. The Kappa was 0.635 in the combination diagnosis of the CAD system with junior physicians, showing good consistency with the pathological results. The accuracy (76.4%) of the CAD system was the highest for nodules of 1–2 cm.ConclusionThe CAD system can effectively assist physicians to identify malignant and benign thyroid nodules, reduce the overdiagnosis and overtreatment of thyroid nodules, avoid unnecessary invasive fine needle aspiration, and improve the diagnostic accuracy of junior physicians.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2022. corrected publication 2023

【 图 表 】

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