Objectives: The aim of our study was to evaluate the shear wave velocity (SWV) of parathyroid lesions by point shear wave elastography (SWE) and to compare their stiffness with that of thyroid nodules and normal thyroid parenchyma quantitatively.
Methods: Thirty-six patients considered to have parathyroid disorders by clinical and laboratory tests and scintigraphy were enrolled in the study between January 2012 and February 2015. Conventional sonography, Doppler sonography, and the Virtual Touch tissue quantification (VTQ) method of point SWE (Siemens Medical Solutions, Mountain View, CA) were conducted with a linear transducer (4-9 MHz) while the patients were in the supine position. Then we compared our VTQ measurements with pathologic results.
Results: The 36 patients included 31 female and 5 male patients with a mean age ± SD of 49 ± 15.7 years (range, 15-79 years). The mean SWV of parathyroid hyperplasia lesions (n = 4) was 1.46 ± 0.23 m/s, whereas the mean SWV of parathyroid adenomas (n = 32) was 2.28 ± 0.50 m/s. The mean SWV of normal thyroid parenchyma (n = 36) was 1.62 ± 0.20 m/s, and the mean SWV of benign thyroid nodules (n = 21) was 2.25 ± 0.51 m/s. A significant difference was found between SWV values of normal thyroid parenchyma and parathyroid adenoma (P < .001). A cutoff value of 1.73 m/s for adenomas led to 90.0% sensitivity and 80.6% specificity.
Conclusions: The VTQ method of point SWE may contribute to the discrimination of parathyroid adenomas from the thyroid gland. However, more comprehensive studies are needed.
Keywords: Virtual Touch tissue quantification; head and neck ultrasound; parathyroid adenoma; shear wave velocity.