Current Practice and New Insights in Thyroid Ultrasound

Thyroid nodules are common and detected in 2-6% in the adult population by palpation. This prevalence increased to 40-60% with the use of ultrasound. Thyroid cancer is rare, with 1020 new cancers (751 women and 287 male) registered in 2019 in Belgium [1]. Ultrasound imaging represents the cornerstone for the thyroid nodule work-up and has benefited from significant improvements in recent years. We succinctly focus on how to evaluate thyroid nodules using ultrasonography and how to use the European Thyroid Imaging and Reporting Data System (EU-TIRADS score). We will also review the possible added value of complementary ultrasound techniques such as high-resolution colour Doppler ultrasound and elastography. Further, we discuss how to select at-risk nodules to benefit from fine-needle aspiration cytology and finally we briefly review new techniques for the treatment of thyroid nodules and the role of artificial intelligence in thyroid nodule classification.