Chinese thyroid imaging reporting and data system with redefined marked hypoechogenicity for thyroid malignancy risk stratification demonstrates improved diagnostic accuracy

TL;DR

A modified thyroid imaging system improves accuracy in predicting thyroid cancer risk by redefining a key ultrasound feature.

Contribution

A redefined marked hypoechogenicity criterion in C-TIRADS improves diagnostic accuracy for thyroid malignancy risk stratification.

Findings

Redefining marked hypoechogenicity increased sensitivity and accuracy in detecting thyroid malignancies.

Modified C-TIRADS outperformed classical C-TIRADS and K-TIRADS in diagnostic accuracy and AUC.

Interobserver agreement improved with the new hypoechogenicity definition.

Abstract

Using ultrasound to distinguish between benign and malignant thyroid nodules can be challenging. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of a modified Chinese Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (C-TIRADS) that incorporates a redefined criterion for marked hypoechogenicity in stratifying the malignancy risk of thyroid nodules.

In this retrospective study, we analyzed patients with thyroid nodules who underwent ultrasound examination and subsequent biopsy or treatment at a tertiary hospital between January 2022 and December 2023. Interobserver agreement in identifying marked hypoechogenicity between two reviewers was assessed using kappa statistics. Using histopathology as the reference standard, the diagnostic performance of three classification systems, including the classical C-TIRADS, the modified C-TIRADS, and the 2021 K-TIRADS, was compared in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), accuracy, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC).

The study included 1,219 patients with 1,721 thyroid nodules. After redefining marked hypoechogenicity, interobserver agreement (kappa) improved from 0.652 to 0.722. Compared to the original criterion, the redefined marked hypoechogenicity demonstrated significantly higher sensitivity (74.5% vs. 15.1%), accuracy (86.8% vs. 70.8%), and AUC (0.836 vs. 0.563) (all p < 0.05), with only a marginal reduction in specificity (92.6% vs. 97.4%, p > 0.05). The malignancy rates for the modified C-TIRADS categories were as follows: 12.0% (4a), 60.6% (4b), 85.8% (4c), and 93.3% (5). The optimal diagnostic thresholds were category 4b for both classical and modified C-TIRADS and category 4 for K-TIRADS. The modified C-TIRADS achieved superior accuracy (90.2% vs. 88.2% vs. 81.3%) and AUC (0.908 vs. 0.870 vs. 0.857) compared to the classical C-TIRADS and K-TIRADS, respectively (all pairwise p < 0.05).

The modified C-TIRADS, incorporating a redefined criterion of marked hypoechogenicity, shows improved diagnostic performance in stratifying the malignancy risk of thyroid nodules and provides risk assessments that align more closely with the expected probabilities outlined in the (classical) C-TIRADS guidelines.

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