Thyroid vascularization and hemodynamics become altered in thyroid pathologies, which could thus inform diagnostics, therapy planning, and follow-up. However, the current noninvasive methods used in clinics are not sensitive enough or too impractical for widespread use.
Near-infrared spectroscopy is an affordable and noninvasive method to study the properties of thyroid tissue in a detailed way. A team of researchers from ICFO used the LUCA platform. This device combines near-infrared spectroscopy and ultrasound techniques to examine thyroid tissue while taking anatomical measurements simultaneously.
This is the first study to characterize thyroid properties in an extensive clinical campaign. It involves healthy subjects and patients with thyroid nodules.
The study involved 65 subjects at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, including 18 healthy volunteers and 47 patients with thyroid nodules. It considered factors like age, body mass index, sex, thyroid depth, and the presence of nodules-affected thyroid tissue. It also tested whether the device could be easily added to existing screening methods.
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Clinicians placed the monitoring probe on the patients’ thyroids, using ultrasound images to guide them. The probe used two methods—time-domain (TD-NIRS) and diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS)—to measure how the thyroid absorbed and scattered light and its oxygen levels, blood flow, and oxygen metabolism.
Researchers found that factors such as age and BMI affect optical parameters. They reduce the measured oxygen saturation, hemoglobin concentration, and blood flow.
In addition, a comparison between benign and malignant nodules, based on the ones studied, showed lower oxygen levels in the benign nodules. This finding is being further explored in a more extensive clinical study.
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The analysis presented can be a helpful reference for future research, providing accurate measurements of thyroid properties, their consistency, and how they vary among people. Understanding these factors could help improve diagnostic accuracy, allowing doctors to detect thyroid problems earlier, reduce the need for invasive biopsies, and support more personalized treatments.
Journal Reference:
- Pablo Fernández Esteberena, Lorenzo Cortese, Marta Zanoletti et al. Near-infrared diffuse optical characterization of human thyroid using ultrasound-guided hybrid time-domain and diffuse correlation spectroscopies. Biomedical Optics Express. DOI: 10.1364/BOE.538141
