Ultrasonographic calcification features of thyroid nodules and its influencing factors

Objective To investigate the characteristics of nodular calcification in patients with thyroid nodules and to analyze its influencing factors. Methods The clinical data of patients with thyroid nodules calcification treated in our hospital from April 2016 to April 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. According to the characteristics of ultrasound imaging, the patients were divided into micro calcification group and coarse calcification group. The proportion of benign and malignant nodules in the two groups were observed. The differences in the proportion of patients with different clinical pathological features were compared between the two groups. Factors affecting the performance of nodules were analyzed. Results The rate of malignant nodules in the micro calcification group was 86.11%, which was significantly higher than that in the coarse calcification group (10.00%) (χ2=208.860, P<0.001). The proportion of the patients less than 50 years old, with lymphatic metastasis, and blood flow type III were 67.78%, 80.56%, and 69.44% respectively in the micro calcification group, which were significantly higher than those in the coarse calcification group (36.11%, 1.11%, 27.78%) (χ2=36.155, 235.114, 62.548, P<0.001). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that benign and malignant nodules, blood flow type were the factors affecting the characteristics of nodular calcification in patients, the OR values were 5.117 and 4.895, respectively. Conclusion Ultrasonographic calcification features of thyroid nodules have a good guiding significance in differentiating benign and malignant thyroid nodules and determination of the thyroid blood flow. Key words: Thyroid nodules; Ultrasonography; Calcification; Regression analysis