VALUE OF MIR-124-3P, MIR-9-3P AND MIR-196B-5P IN DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF THYROID NODULES

Objective: To investigate the value of miR-124-3p, miR-9-3p and miR-196b-5p in differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules. Methods: 118 patients with thyroid nodules admitted to our hospital from September 2016 to September 2018 were selected. According to the pathological results of thyroid surgery, they were divided into 60 benign group and 58 malignant group. 50 healthy people who did not have any benign or malignant diseases in our hospital were selected as the control group. The clinical data of each group were collected, and the levels of miR-124-3p, miR-9-3p and miR-196b-5p were detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR. The relationship between the expression of three indicators and the clinicopathology of malignant group was analyzed. Results: The results of Real-time quantitative PCR showed that the expression levels of miR-124-3p and miR-9-3p in the malignant group were significantly higher than those in the benign group and the control group, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The expression level of miR-196b-5p in benign group was significantly higher than that in malignant group and control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in miR-196b-5p expression between malignant group and control group (P>0.05). The ROC curve showed that the expression of miR-124-3p, miR-9-3p and miR-196b-5p in the malignant group and the two groups were 0.820, 0.753, and 0.781, respectively. The sensitivities were 88.0%, 70.2%, and 74.3%, respectively, and the specificities were 76.2%, 64.3%, and 66.7%, respectively. The area under the curve, sensitivity and specificity, respectively, have a higher diagnostic value in the benign and malignant thyroid nodules. miR-124-3p and miR-9-3p were highly expressed in patients aged >= 45 years, and miR-124-3p also showed high expression in patients with tumor diameter >= 2 cm. However, the expression of miR-196b-5p was not significantly correlated with the clinicopathology of malignant patients. Conclusions: The expression levels of miR-124-3p and miR-9-3p were significantly increased in patients with thyroid cancer, and the expression level of miR-196b-5p was significantly increased in patients with benign thyroid nodules. miR-124-3p, miR-9-3p and miR-196b-5p have high clinical value in the identification of benign and malignant thyroid tumors.