الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
While elastography is a promising technique in some organs such as the breast [26,98] and the liver [20,50], there have been conflicting results of its additional value in predicting thyroid malignancy despite the various studies discussing the modality[14,24,66]. In order to be a good adjunctive diagnostic tool to conventional US, complementary elastography should improve the diagnostic performances of conventional US, rationalize the consequently longer examination time and the additional financial cost of elastographic software that comes with its use. The value of elastography may be limited in institutions that show high diagnostic performances of conventional ultrasound by highly dedicated physicians. However, further studies should continuously validate the utility of elastography, particularly in selected cases. Medicine is now heading into an era where we all seek objective tests with minimal invasive techniques. Elastography examination deserves more research work in order to reach a diagnostic regime that carries considerably low individual variations and more objective results than the conventional ultrasonography.
Our study discussed thoroughly the clinical application of the thyroid strain elastography. The scientific background of strain elastography was presented in a very simple, yet informative manner. Comparison of the study results with other similar studies done over the last few years was carried out from different angles. The role of conventional ultrasonography was not neglected as well. Actually, our study was putting special emphasis on using the elastography hand in hand with the conventional ultrasound based on the elevated accuracy of using them both together. It’s too early to rely on thyroid elastography alone in the assessment of the thyroid nodules. Despite, the higher specificity of the elastography when used alone, it’s the decreased sensitivity compared to the conventional ultrasound that proved to be worrisome. Decreased sensitivity means increased level of false negative which means patient will lose better chances of early diagnosis. Its high specificity means that false positive results will decrease. And as important as this might sound from the psychological point of view, it remains lower in priority than its relatively lower sensitivity.