Assessing salivary gland hardness in postoperative papillary thyroid cancer patients after 131Ⅰ treatment:a study based on shear wave elastography
Objective To preliminarily investigate the clinical application value of real-time shear wave elastography (SWE) technology in parotid and submandibular gland lesions in post-total resection patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) after receiving iodine radioisotope (131Ⅰ) therapy. Methods Sixty postoperative PTC patients who underwent total thyroidectomy and experienced dry mouth symptoms after receiving 131Ⅰ therapy for over 1 year during their follow-up visits at outpatient clinic of Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shanxi Bethune Hospital from September 2022 to November 2023 were included as treatment group. Control group was formed by selecting 30 healthy volunteers with matching age and gender from our hospital during the same period. Supersonic Aixplorer ultrasonic diagnostic instrument was applied to perform routine ultrasound and SWE examination of bilateral parotid and submandibular glands of all subjects. The parotid gland thickness, submandibular gland volume and its mean Young's modulus (Emean) were measured in the control and treatment groups, respectively. Results There was no significant difference in the thickness of parotid gland and the volume of submandibular gland between the group(P>0.05). The Emean values of the parotid and submandibular glands in the control group were 8.56 ± 0.71 and 8.41 ± 1.00 kPa, respectively, while in the treatment group they were 13.25 ± 2.98 and 11.92 ± 2.06 kPa, respectively;There were significant differences in the same parts between the two groups (P<0.001);When comparing different locations within groups, the treatment group had a higher Emean value in the parotid gland compared to the submandibular gland (P<0.05), while there was no statistically significant difference in Emean values between the parotid and submandibular glands in the control group (P>0.05). There was also no statistically significant difference in bilateral comparison of Emean values for both glands among all subjects (P>0.05). The Emean of parotid gland and submandibular gland was found to have a linear correlation with the follow-up duration, cumulative dose, and drug administration frequency (P<0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the cumulative dose was independently and positively correlated with Emean of parotid gland and submandibular gland (P<0.001). Conclusion As a non-invasive, radiation-free, straightforward, and replicable examination, SWE can offer quantitative evaluations of the hardness of parotid and submandibular glands in patients who have undergone total resection of PTC and subsequently undergone therapy with 131Ⅰ. An increase in the cumulative dose results in higher Emean values for both parotid and submandibular glands, indicative of increased tissue hardness, and potentially, a greater extent of tissue damage. SWE may serve as a valuable index in the clinical appraisal of tissue damage in the parotid and submandibular glands of patients following total PTC resection and 131Ⅰ treatment, providing a quantitative means for monitoring.
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
万方数据
