Thyroid Nodules Located in the Lower Pole Have a Higher Risk of Malignancy than Located in the Isthmus: A Single-Center Experience

Table 5

Comparison of postoperative pathological results with US findings.

Variables	Postoperative pathological results
	Benign (n = 925)	Malignant (n = 100)	Incidental (n = 35)
Ecogenicity
Isoechoic	471 (50.9)^a	39 (39.0)^ab	10 (28.6)^b	0.002
Hypoechoic	360 (38.9)^a	52 (52.0)^b	16 (45.7)^ab
Hyperechoic	37 (4.0)^a	3 (3.0)^a	1 (2.9)^a
Mixed echoic	57 (6.2)^a	6 (6.0)^a	8 (22.9)^b
US findings
Cystic areas	252 (48.1)^a	15 (17.4)^b	11 (32.4)^ab	<0.001
Necrosis	26 (5.0)^a	10 (11.6)^b	6 (17.6)^b
Microcalcification	181 (34.5)^a	30 (34.9)^a	12 (35.3)^a
Macrocalcification	24 (4.6)^a	2 (2.3)^a	2 (5.9)^a
Border irregularity	15 (2.9)^a	12 (14.0)^b	0 (0.0)^ab
İntermittent wall calcification	19 (3.6)^a	1 (1.2)^a	3 (8.8)^a
Taller than wide	7 (1.3)^a	16 (18.6)^b	0 (0.0)^a
Doppler US
No blood flow	131 (15.0)^a	14 (14.4)^a	3 (8.6)^a	<0.001
Peripheral blood flow	469 (53.6)^a	26 (26.8)^b	12 (34.3)^ab
Central blood flow	50 (5.7)^a	19 (19.6)^b	11 (31.4)^b
Central and peripheral blood flow	225 (25.7)^a	38 (39.2)^b	9 (25.7)^ab

Data are expressed as n (%). Similar letters on the same line indicate similarity between groups and different letters indicate differences between groups.