الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract The thyroid gland is involved in several diseases, such as Graves’ disease, toxic multinodular goitre, and others. It is essential to differentiate clearly between them as clinical therapy for these diseases is different. The aim of the work is to evaluate the usefulness of diffusion MR imaging in the assessment of thyroid gland function and for diagnosis of Graves’ disease and toxic nodular goitre. Patients included in the research were classified into 3 groups: a group of 10 patients with Graves’ disease; a group of 10 patients with toxic nodular goiter and a control group of 10 subjects. In this study, the mean ADC values of Graves’ disease were significantly lower than that of normal subjects, while the mean ADC values of toxic nodular goiter group were significantly higher than ADC values of control group. There was highly significant strong negative correlation between 99mTc uptakes (%) and mean ADC value in all patients. Owing to the precautions and side effects of thyroid gland scintigraphy and according to the advantages of apparent diffusion coefficient obtained via diffusion- weighted MR image which is non invasive, not associated with radiation hazards, no injection of contrast materials is required and high diagnostic accuracy , we recommend the usage of ADC for evaluating thyroid gland diseases and function. |