Multimodal Ultrasound for Evaluating Gross Extrathyroidal Extension in Papillary Thyroid Cancer: A Comparative Study

To explore and compare the diagnostic performance of multimodal ultrasound modalities for evaluating gross extrathyroidal extension (gETE) in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). A total of 245 patients with 277 PTC nodules were enrolled in this study from September 2020 to June 2024. Preoperative imaging features of conventional B-mode ultrasound (BMUS), contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), and strain elastography (SE) were retrospectively reviewed. The consistency between multimodal ultrasound and surgical pathology for the diagnosis of gETE was assessed using Cohen’s kappa coefficient. The diagnostic performance of BMUS, CEUS, and SE was compared using chi-square tests and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The imaging features demonstrating the highest diagnostic accuracy and consistency for gETE were echo replacement of the adjacent tissues on BMUS ( p < 0.05), enhancement replacement of the adjacent tissues on CEUS ( p < 0.001), and strain stiffness color replacement of the adjacent tissues on SE ( p < 0.001). Based on these imaging features, SE demonstrated the higher diagnostic accuracy than BMUS and CEUS (93.1% vs. 88.8% vs. 87.7%, p < 0.001), and greater consistency (kappa = 0.759 vs. 0.514 vs. 0.513, p < 0.001). SE exhibited superior diagnostic performance, especially for gETE invading the strap muscles ( p < 0.001). Compared with the single ultrasound modality, the combined approach yielded better diagnostic performance than single ultrasound modality ( p < 0.05). SE demonstrated superior diagnostic performance compared with BMUS and CEUS for gETE, especially for strap muscle extension. The combined approach could further improve diagnostic performance.