Table 1.
CEUS characteristics of benign and malignant thyroid nodules
| Indicator | Pathology | p | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benign | Malignant | ||
| Wash-in | 0.216* | ||
| Earlier | 7 (16.3%) | 1 (3.2%) | |
| Meantime | 30 (69.8%) | 24 (77.4%) | |
| Later | 6 (14.0%) | 6 (19.4%) | |
| Intensity | 0.016* | ||
| Hypo-enhancement | 2 (4.7%) | 9 (29.0%) | 0.013# |
| Iso-enhancement | 27 (62.8%) | 14 (45.2%) | 0.86# |
| Hyper-enhancement | 14 (32.6%) | 8 (25.8%) | 0.014# |
| Homogeneity | 0.212* | ||
| Homogeneity | 40 (93.0%) | 25 (80.6%) | |
| Heterogeneity | 3 (7.0%) | 6 (19.4%) | |
| Enhanced defect | 0.052* | ||
| Without | 29 (67.4%) | 27 (87.1%) | |
| With | 14 (32.6%) | 4 (12.9%) | |
| Enhanced pattern | 0.699* | ||
| Entire | 40 (93.0%) | 27 (87.1%) | |
| Centripetal | 1 (2.3%) | 2 (6.5%) | |
| Eccentrical | 2 (4.7%) | 2 (6.5%) | |
| Enhancing ring | 0.001* | ||
| Without | 18 (41.9%) | 14 (45.2%) | 0.008# |
| High | 11 (25.6%) | 0 (0.0%) | 0.001# |
| Low | 14 (32.6%) | 17 (54.8%) | 0.454# |
| Wash out | 0.801* | ||
| Earlier | 10 (23.3%) | 8 (25.8%) | |
| Later | 33 (76.7%) | 23 (74.2%) | |
*Determined with the χ2 test
#Bonferroni correction was used for comparisons of the three categories, and values of p < 0.017 (0.05/3) were considered statistically significant for the pairwise comparisons