Application of ultrasound elastography and radiomic for predicting central cervical lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma

Objective This study aims to combine ultrasound (US) elastography (USE) and radiomic to predict central cervical lymph node metastasis (CLNM) in patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC). Methods A total of 204 patients with 204 thyroid nodules who were confirmed with PTMC and treated in our hospital were enrolled and randomly assigned to the training set (n = 142) and the validation set (n = 62). US features, USE (gender, shape, echogenic foci, thyroid imaging reporting and data system (TIRADS) category, and elasticity score), and radiomic signature were employed to build three models. A nomogram was plotted for the combined model, and decision curve analysis was applied for clinical use. Results The combined model (USE and radiomic) showed optimal diagnostic performance in both training (AUC = 0.868) and validation sets (AUC = 0.857), outperforming other models. Conclusion The combined model based on USE and radiomic showed a superior performance in the prediction of CLNM of patients with PTMC, covering the shortage of low specificity of conventional US in detecting CLNM.