Thyroid Cancer (Thyroid Carcinoma): Diagnostic Tests

Mandatory medical device diagnostics.

  • Thyroid ultrasonography (ultrasound examination of the thyroid gland) – to detect nodules [Suspicious (suspicious)/malignant (malignant) nodules:
    • Shape: irregularly configured Border: indistinct, poorly delineated.
    • Echo structure: solid node, solid and cystic portions.
    • Echogenicity: echo-poor or -complex, inhomogeneous.
    • Calcification: micro- and macrocalcification.
    • Rim: no halo (light ring around the node).
    • Blood flow: hypervascularization in the marginal and internal areas.
    • Lymph nodes: roundish, hypervascularized, no central vessel.
    • Node size of at least 4 cm is considered an independent risk factor for malignancy (1)]
  • Thyroid scintigraphy – to determine the activity of the nodes (cold/warm).
  • Fine needle biopsy (FNB) or fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAZ) – to determine histology (benign or malignant?).
  • Magnetic resonance imaging of the thorax/chest (thoracic MRI) – for intrathoracic goiter (thyroid enlargement, when located in the chest).

Optional medical device diagnostics – depending on the results of the history, physical examination and mandatory laboratory parameters – for differential diagnostic clarification.

  • X-ray of the thorax (X-ray thorax/chest), in two planes.
  • Skeletal scintigraphy – exclusion of bone metastases (metastasis of cancer cells to the bones).
  • Computed tomography (CT) – sectional imaging procedure (X-ray images from different directions with computer-based evaluation).
  • Tumor scintigraphy with 123Iodine- (131I-) meta-iodobenzylguanidine (mIBG) – for medullary thyroid carcinomas.