A beneficial role of computer-aided diagnosis system for less experienced physicians in the diagnosis of thyroid nodule on ultrasound

• Published in: Scientific reports 2021-10, Vol.11 (1), p.20448-20448, Article 20448
• Main Authors: Kang, Sunyoung, Lee, Eunjung, Chung, Chae Won, Jang, Han Na, Moon, Joon Ho, Shin, Yujin, Kim, Kyuho, Li, Ying, Shin, Soo Myoung, Kim, Yoo Hyung, Kwon, Seul Ki, Ahn, Chang Ho, Jung, Kyong Yeun, Hong, A. Ram, Park, Young Joo, Park, Do Joon, Kwak, Jin Young, Cho, Sun Wook
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 631/67; 692/163; Biopsy, Fine-Needle; Cytology; Diagnosis; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted - methods; Female; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Male; Malignancy; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Nodules; Reproducibility of Results; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Thyroid; Thyroid gland; Thyroid Gland - diagnostic imaging; Thyroid Gland - pathology; Thyroid Nodule - diagnosis; Thyroid Nodule - diagnostic imaging; Thyroid Nodule - pathology; Ultrasonography
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-99983-6

Ultrasonography (US) is the primary diagnostic tool for thyroid nodules, while the accuracy is operator-dependent. It is widely used not only by radiologists but also by physicians with different levels of experience. The aim of this study was to investigate whether US with computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) has assisting roles to physicians in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules. 451 thyroid nodules evaluated by fine-needle aspiration cytology following surgery were included. 300 (66.5%) of them were diagnosed as malignancy. Physicians with US experience less than 1 year (inexperienced, n = 10), or more than 5 years (experienced, n = 3) reviewed the US images of thyroid nodules with or without CAD assistance. The diagnostic performance of CAD was comparable to that of the experienced group, and better than those of the inexperienced group. The AUC of the CAD for conventional PTC was higher than that for FTC and follicular variant PTC (0.925 vs. 0.499), independent of tumor size. CAD assistance significantly improved diagnostic performance in the inexperienced group, but not in the experienced groups. In conclusion, t he CAD system showed good performance in the diagnosis of conventional PTC. CAD assistance improved the diagnostic performance of less experienced physicians in US, especially in diagnosis of conventional PTC.