ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Head and Neck Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1551114
Impact of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis on Ultrasound Diagnosis of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: A Retrospective Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China
- 2Department of Ultrasound, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China
- 3Department of Pathology, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China
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Objective: To investigate the clinical features and ultrasonic manifestations of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and without HT. The characteristics were analyzed to improve the accuracy of diagnosing PTC with HT via ultrasound, potentially reducing overtreatment in certain cases. Methods: The patients were retrospectively analyzed in the XXX from December 2015 to January 2020. A total of 5732 patients had thyroid nodules on ultrasound. Among them, 553 patients (702 nodules) received surgical treatment and the histopathological results showed PTC with or without HT were enrolled. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to evaluate the risk factors associated with HT influencing the ultrasound diagnosis of PTC. The nodules were categorized into two groups based on pathological results: PTC with HT and PTC without HT. Results: Gender, nodule echo, posterior echo change, border, aspect ratio, and nodule invasion rate significantly differed between the two groups (P<0.05). Independent variables for the multivariate logistic regression model were selected from those that showed statistical significance (P<0.05) in the univariate analysis. The results showed that the model was statistically significant (χ2=4.717, P<0.001, R2=0.185). Being female and aspect ratio ≥1 were identified as the risk factors for the diagnosis of PTC with HT, and the values were higher in group A than in group B by 3.15 and 1.73, respectively (OR=3.15, 1.73, P<0.05). Moreover, HT was identified as the protective factor because PTC was less likely to invade the thyroid capsule than the control group (OR=0.47, P<0.05). Conclusions: HT can affect the clinical and ultrasonographic features of PTC in distinct ways. It provides a protective effect on the capsule, significantly reducing capsular invasion, while female gender and an aspect ratio ≥1 are associated with an increased risk of PTC with HT diagnosis.
Keywords: thyroid, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Papillary thyroid carcinoma, Ultrasound diagnosis, ultrasound
Received: 24 Dec 2024; Accepted: 28 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Teng, Pang, Zhang, Li, Wei and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiuliang Wei, Department of Ultrasound, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China
Feixue Zhang, Department of Ultrasound, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China
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