American College of Radiology Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System standardises reporting of thyroid ultrasounds

SA Journal of Radiology

 
 
Field Value
 
Title American College of Radiology Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System standardises reporting of thyroid ultrasounds
 
Creator Botha, Mariska Kisansa, Margaret Greeff, Wim
 
Subject Radiology thyroid ultrasound; ACR TI-RADS; thyroid nodules; reporting standard; thyroid biopsy; thyroid fine needle aspiration (FNA); improved quality of reports; thyroid sonar; thyroid cancer; thyroid malignancy.
Description Background: Thyroid nodules are common, the majority benign. The small risk of malignancy leads to excessive workup. Thyroid ultrasound is essential for risk stratification and management guidance. Without an organised reporting guideline, reports do not add significant value to referring clinicians. The American College of Radiology Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (ACR TI-RADS) was developed to aid ultrasound reporting, lessen excessive biopsies and diagnose thyroid cancers.Objectives: To standardise reporting of thyroid ultrasounds by utilising an organised reporting guideline based on ACR TI-RADS.Method: Thyroid ultrasound reports generated by radiology registrars at an academic hospital were studied in two phases. In Phase 1, the reports were generated as free text, and in Phase 2, using a guideline based on ACR TI-RADS. The percentages of reports that described the maximum size, the five ACR TI-RADS features and a management recommendation were compared.Results: A total of 130 reports were studied. Significant improvement was observed in the description of all five ACR TI-RADS categories (p 0.0001) from Phase 1 to Phase 2. Of all the reports, 89% included a management recommendation. Reports including an ACR TI-RADS-based recommendation increased from 48% to 75% (p 0.05). Recommendation for biopsy increased from 35.4% to 53.8% (p 0.05).Conclusion: Introduction of an organised reporting guideline based on ACR TI-RADS, standardised reporting of thyroid ultrasounds by increasing description of thyroid nodule features and ensuring appropriate management recommendations. This, in future, will prevent underdiagnosis of thyroid cancer and unnecessary workup of benign nodules.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2020-02-06
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Quantitative research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajr.v24i1.1804
 
Source South African Journal of Radiology; Vol 24, No 1 (2020); 7 pages 2078-6778 1027-202X
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajr.org.za/index.php/sajr/article/view/1804/2416 https://sajr.org.za/index.php/sajr/article/view/1804/2415 https://sajr.org.za/index.php/sajr/article/view/1804/2417 https://sajr.org.za/index.php/sajr/article/view/1804/2414
 
Coverage South Africa; Gauteng; Pretoria 2018-2019 Thyroid ultrasound reports
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Mariska Botha, Margaret Kisansa, Wim Greeff https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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