Risk-stratification of pediatric thyroid nodules using ATA and ACR TIRADS adult thyroid nodule scoring systems.

Diramerian LG., Douek M., Tse G., Iskander P., Li S., Yeh MW., Livhits MJ., Leung AM., Chiu HK., Wu JX.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of American Thyroid Association (ATA) and American College of Radiology Thyroid Imaging and Reporting Data System (ACR TI RADS) in pediatrics. METHODS: Retrospective review, patients aged ≤18 years with thyroid nodules from 2002-2022. Patients with no available ultrasound images or pathology results were excluded. Each neck ultrasound was independently and blindly reviewed and scored using ATA and TIRADS by two study radiologists; discordant scores were arbitrated by a third radiologist. Thyroid nodules that did not undergo surgical resection were considered benign if their size was stable and/or if repeat fine needle aspiration (FNA) was again benign. The performance of each system was calculated. Sensitivity analyses performed to determine the optimal size cut-off for FNA biopsy while maintaining sensitivity equivalent to adults. RESULTS: 77 patients (median age, 15 years [range 2-18]); 71.4% female) with 115 thyroid nodules. Malignancy rate 27.8%. Using adult size cut-offs for FNA, ATA and TIRADS would have failed to recommend biopsy in 11/32 and 15/32 malignant nodules, respectively (sensitivity 66%, specificity 55%, versus 53%, 87% respectively). In our sensitivity analysis the optimal size cut-offs for ATA were: 2 cm for very low risk, 1 cm for low risk, and 0.5 cm for intermediate and high-risk categories (sensitivity 94%; specificity 33%). For TIRADS were: 3 cm for TIRADS-2, 0.8 cm for TIRADS-3 and TIRADS-4, and 0.5 cm for TIRADS-5 (sensitivity 91%; specificity 59%). CONCLUSION: ATA and TIRADS have low sensitivity in pediatrics. Lowering the size cutoffs for FNA increases sensitivity to >90%.

DOI

10.1016/j.eprac.2026.06.007

Type

Journal article

Publication Date

2026-06-26T00:00:00+00:00

Keywords

Pediatric, Thyroid, Thyroid nodule, cancer, sonography, ultrasound

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