Table 1. Basic characteristics of the patients and US features of the nodules.
| Characteristics | Overall | Malignant | Benign | P value | nodules 5–10 mm (n=48) | P value | nodules>10mm (n=55) | P value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malignant | Benign | Malignant | Benign | |||||||
| Number of patients | 103 | 38 | 65 | 21 | 27 | 17 | 38 | |||
| Sex (female/male) | 89/14 | 34/4 | 55/10 | 0.488 | 19/2 | 24/3 | 1.000 | 15/2 | 31/7 | 0.824 |
| Mean age (y) | 56±11 | 54±14 | 57±9 | 0.214 | 52±15 | 56±10 | 0.294 | 55±13 | 57±8 | 0.496 |
| Range | 25-76 | 25-76 | 31-70 | 25-72 | 31-69 | 25-76 | 40-70 | |||
| Number of nodules | 103 | 38 | 65 | 21 | 27 | 17 | 38 | |||
| Position | 0.546 | 1.000 | 0.403 | |||||||
| Left/isthmus/right | 47/5/51 | 16/3/19 | 31/2/32 | 9/2/10 | 11/2/14 | 7/1/9 | 20/0/18 | |||
| Mean size (mm) | 10.8±5.5 | 9.2±3.9 | 11.8±6.1 | 0.024* | 6.3±1.6 | 6.9±1.7 | 0.196 | 12.9±2.5 | 15.2±5.7 | 0.041* |
| Range | 5-35 | 5-18 | 5-35 | 5-10 | 5-10 | 11-18 | 11-35 | |||
| Background | 0.062 | 0.675 | 0.126 | |||||||
| Homogenous / coarse | 83/20 | 27/11 | 56/9 | 16/5 | 23/4 | 11/6 | 33/5 | |||
| Halo sign | 0.023* | 0.435 | 0.095 | |||||||
| Absent/present | 73/30 | 32/6 | 41/24 | 19/2 | 21/6 | 13/4 | 20/18 | |||
| Echogenicity | 0.000* | 0.000* | 0.008* | |||||||
| Hyper-/iso-/hypo-/ marked hypo-/mixed- | 1/12/51/23/16 | 0/0/18/19/1 | 1/12/33/4/15 | 0/0/7/14/0 | 0/6/16/2/3 | 0/0/11/5/1 | 1/6/17/2/12 | |||
| Shape | 0.009* | 0.069 | 0.155 | |||||||
| Regular / irregular | 26/77 | 4/34 | 22/43 | 1/20 | 8/19 | 3/14 | 14/24 | |||
| Margin | 0.006* | 0.039* | 0.155 | |||||||
| Well/poorly defined | 27/76 | 4/34 | 23/42 | 1/20 | 9/18 | 3/14 | 14/24 | |||
| Capsule contact | 0.384 | 0.840 | 0.363 | |||||||
| No contact/ ≤25%/26%–50% / >50% | 33/39/22/9 | 14/15/8/1 | 19/24/14/8 | 8/10/3/0 | 13/10/3/1 | 6/5/5/1 | 6/14/11/7 | |||
| Internal nodule component | 0.013* | 0.246 | 0.160 | |||||||
| Solid nodules/ ≤25%/26%–50%/ >50% | 87/14/2/0 | 37/1/0/0 | 50/13/2/0 | 21/0/0/0 | 24/3/0/0 | 16/1/0/0 | 26/10/2/0 | |||
| Calcification | 0.000* | 0.009* | 0.014* | |||||||
| No-/macro-/micro- | 52/38/13 | 12/24/2 | 40/14/11 | 7/14/0 | 17/7/3 | 5/10/2 | 23/7/8 | |||
| Height and width | 0.000* | 0.000* | 0.003* | |||||||
| <1 / ≥1 | 67/36 | 13/25 | 54/11 | 3/18 | 18/9 | 10/7 | 36/2 | |||
| Vascularity | 0.290 | 0.392 | 0.724 | |||||||
| Type I/II/III | 23/50/30 | 8/22/8 | 15/28/22 | 6/12/3 | 9/10/8 | 2/10/5 | 6/18/14 | |||
*
Indicate the differences are statistically significant.
n number ; US Ultrasound;