Diagnosis of occult XXXX by ultrasonography.

@entity1 @entity5 @entity189 @entity400 @entity259
The increased sensitivity of many imaging devices has increased the identification of asymptomatic nodules in the thyroid gland. In this study we investigated the actual incidence of nonpalpable thyroid nodules and @entity189 in @entity1 . Between January and June 2003, among the @entity1 who were scheduled to undergo breast ultrasonography, 697 without palpable thyroid nodules were screened for thyroid nodules. They were classified into four categories according to ultrasonographic findings: negative, benign, indeterminate and malignant. Ultrasound-guided @entity400 ( @entity400 ) was carried out for all malignant lesions and for some of the benign and indeterminate ones. The nodule detection and @entity5 rates were determined and the effectiveness of ultrasonography as a diagnostic tool was also investigated. Out of the 697 subjects, 246 (35.3%) were found to have thyroid nodules. The @entity5 detection rate based on the @entity400 results, including both suspicious and malignant groups, was 3.6% (25/697) for all subjects. In addition, 3.0% (21/697) of all the @entity1 were confirmed to have @entity259 by surgery. The sensitivity of sonographic classification was increased from 80% to 100% when the indeterminate class was added to the malignant one, although this decreased the specificity from 91.7% to 33.3%. In conclusion, high-resolution ultrasonography detected a high percentage of malignant nodules. Ultrasonography can augment its value by guiding @entity400 , in addition to providing diagnostic images.
