浜崎 直樹¹, 鴻池 義純¹, 須崎 康恵¹, 江川 信一¹, 竹下 修治¹, 仲川 房幸², 衛藤 幸男³, 今井 幸子⁴, 大石 元⁵, 成田 亘啓⁶

Naoki HAMAZAKI¹, Yoshizumi KOUNIKE¹, Yasue SUZAKI¹, Shinichi EGAWA¹, Shuuji TAKESHITA¹, Fusayuki NAKAGAWA², Yukio ETO³, Yukiko IMAI⁴, Hajime OHISHI⁵, Nobuhiro NARITA⁶

¹済生会奈良病院内科, ²済生会奈良病院放射線科, ³済生会奈良病院耳鼻咽喉科, ⁴奈良県立三室病院放射線科, ⁵奈良県立医科大学腫瘍放射線科, ⁶奈良県立医科大学第2内科

¹Department of Internal Medicine, Saiseikai Nara Hospital, ²Department of Radiology, Saiseikai Nara Hospital, ³Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Saiseikai Nara Hospital, ⁴Department of Radiology, Nara Prefectural Mimuro Hospital, ⁵Department of Oncoradiology, Nara Medical University, ⁶Second Department of Internal Medicine, Nara Medical University

キーワード : Color flow imaging, Power mode, Thyroid nodule, Ultrasonography, Velocity mode

We investigated the usefulness of color flow imaging (CFI) in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules by comparing results obtained with velocity mode and power mode imaging. Thirty-three thyroid nodules (7 papillary carcinomas, 3 follicular carcinomas, 16 follicular adenomas, and 7 adenomatous goiters) were examined. We classified color flow pattern of thyroid nodules depicted by CFI into six groups: type Ⅰ, perinodular color flow alone; type Ⅱ, intranodular spotty color flow; type Ⅲ, intranodular short linear color flow; type Ⅳ, intranodular moderate color flow; type Ⅳ-A, branchy color flow; type Ⅳ-B, tortuous color flow; and type Ⅴ, intranodular marked color flow. Color flow patterns observed in powermode, studies of the benign and malignant groups differed significantly. No statistically significant differences were found when velocity mode was used, however. This study suggests that power mode CFI is useful in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules. CFI appears liltely to become more precise and more useful as the technology develops and the body of data obtained with it grows.