PURPOSE:
Ultrasound diagnosis (US) and differential diagnosis of the thyroid cancer and it's recurrences

MATERIAL AND METHODS:
From 2004-2008 we have examined 225 consecutive patients (9-79 years old) with thyroid disease at the State Central Hospital and National Cancer Center of Mongolia. All patients were examined by US, color - Doppler US and US guided fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). The outcomes of US study were compared with cytological and histological findings retrospectively.
RESULTS:
One hundred forty-seven of 225 patients (65,3%) detected thyroid cancer, in 30 patients (13,3%) reccurency of thyroid cancer, in 24 patients simple adenoma, in 24 patients AIT. At cytological evaluation, in all 147 patients with diagnosed thyroid cancer were papillary in 89 (61%), folliculary in 44 (30%), and medullary in 5 (3,4%), anaplastic in 9 (6,1%) of cases. US criteria and CFD examinations of thyroid cancers were: without capsularity margin-131 (90,3%), nonhomogeneous echo structure-126 (86,9%), hypoechoic-121 (83,45%), irregular margin-119 (82,1%), nonsmooth margin-104 (71,7%), abnormal shape-99 (68,3%), with cystic component-53 (36,55%), micro calcification-36 (24,8%), cervical LN one side of the metastasis-15 (10,2%), hypervascular-65%, hypovasculary-27,5%, avasculary-7,5%.

CONCLUSIONS:

1. US examination of thyroid glands have leading role in the early detection and screening of thyroid cancer.
2. We have defined main US signs indicating malignancy of thyroid nodules. If 3 or more of these signs occurs, with involvement of lymphatic nodules, thyroid cancer diagnosis have sensibility 85,3 %, specificity 75,3 % and accuracy 74,2 %.
3. Tumor vascularization is important in making differentiation and monitoring of thyroid cancer.