BRAF V600E Gene Testing Combined with Serum TSH, TGAb and TPOAb Testing for the Diagnosis of Malignancy in TI-RADS 4 Nodules
*Corresponding Author:Received Date: Oct 28, 2024 / Published Date: Nov 27, 2024
Citation: Ying YJ, Zheng L, Lin Y (2024) BRAF V600E Gene Testing Combined with Serum TSH, TGAb and TPOAb Testing for the Diagnosis of Malignancy in TI-RADS 4 Nodules. J Infect Dis Ther 12:617.DOI: 10.4173/2332-0877.24.8.617
Copyright: 漏 2024 Ying YJ, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Abstract
Background: To evaluate the diagnostic value of BRAF V600E gene testing combined with serum Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH), Thyroid Peroxidase Antibody (TPOAb) and Thyroglobulin Antibody (TGAb) testing for malignancy in Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (TI-RADS) 4 nodules. Methods: This was a retrospective study of patients who were diagnosed with TI-RADS 4 nodules via ultrasound examination during an outpatient or inpatient visit who underwent BRAF V600E gene testing and who had histopathological results from June 2020 to June 2022 at Taizhou Cancer Hospital. We compared the baseline characteristics, namely, age, sex, presence of lymph node metastasis, tumour size, cytological results and BRAF V600E gene testing results, of the two patient groups according to their postoperative pathological results. Using postoperative pathology as the gold standard, the sensitivity and specificity of serum TSH, TGAb and TPOAb and BRAF V600E gene testing alone for diagnosing malignant TI-RADS 4 nodules and the Area Under The Curve (AUC) were calculated. The four indicators were then combined to diagnose TI-RADS 4 nodule malignancy and the sensitivity, specificity and AUC were calculated. Results: Among 112 patients with TI-RADS 4 nodules, 89 had malignant nodules and 23 had benign nodules. The proportions of patients with TI-RADS 4 nodules aged ≥ 50 years and aged 1 cm was significantly greater (86.8% (33/38)) than that of nodules ≤ 1 cm (75.7% (56/74), p=0.003). None of the benign modules were positive for the BRAF V600E gene mutation, but 73.0% of malignant nodules had this mutation (p=0.000). Among patients with and without the BRAF V600E gene mutation, 30.8% and 12.8%, respectively, had cervical lymph node metastasis (p=0.026). The sensitivity and specificity of BRAF V600E gene testing for diagnosing malignancy in TI-RADS 4 nodules were 100% and 48.94%, respectively. However, when the BRAF V600E gene was combined with the serum TSH, TGAb and TPOAb levels, the specificity and AUC of the combined indicators were 100% and 0.891, respectively. Conclusion: The combination of BRAF V600E gene testing and serum TSH, TPOAb and TGAb testing has good clinical value for diagnosing malignancy in TI-RADS 4 nodules.
