Standardized Ultrasound Cine Loop Protocol for Benign Thyroid Disease Applied by Medical Technical Assistants

Ziel/Aim Conventional ultrasound (US) is a time-consuming examination in clinical routine and the findings are subjected to high interobserver variability. We introduce a standardized cine loop protocol for thyroid US that can be applied by both physicians and non-physician healthcare professionals (e.g. Medical Technical Assistants, MTA). This study proofs the feasibility/applicability of cine loops by MTAs for the purpose of second reading sessions.

Methodik/Methods Out of clinical routine, consecutive cases with conventional physician US and I-124-PET/CT of the thyroid were prospectively enrolled for additional MTA US cine loop documentation. MTA US data were independently recorded and did neither influence the physician medical report nor the treatment course of the patients. Five years later an experienced nuclear medicine physician reviewed the MTA US cine loop data without knowing the medical reports of the past. Volumetric determinations of the organs and the identified thyroid nodules (TN) as well as TIRADS classifications of the respective TN were recorded and compared to the initial medical reports. Since all patients received a CT scan (not part of the study), 3D multi-contour CT measurements were used as the gold standard for volumetric determinations.

Ergebnisse/Results Very high concordance between conventional physician, MTA cine loop US, and CT measurements have been observed (r between 0.8868-0.9874, p < 0.0001 each). Furthermore, the identification and TIRADS classification of TN was very similar on conventional physician and MTA cine loop US. Minor technical limitations were identified. The time-consumption for a whole thyroid cine loop documentation is less than one minute.

Schlussfolgerungen/Conclusions The authors recommend the acquisition of standardized cine loops for thyroid US examinations. This easy to apply technique can be performed by non-physicians, e.g. MTAs.