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Volume 21, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1573-4056
  • E-ISSN: 1875-6603
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Abstract

Objective

This prospective study aimed to establish the typical viscosity range of the thyroid gland in healthy individuals using a new method called the Sound Touch Viscosity (STVi) technique with a linear array transducer.

Methods

Seventy-eight healthy volunteers were enrolled between March, 2023 and April, 2023. Thyroid viscosity was measured using the Resona R9 ultrasound system equipped with a linear array transducer (L15-3WU). Each patient had three valid viscosity measurements taken for each thyroid lobe, and the average values were analyzed. Thyroid gland stiffness was measured and analyzed simultaneously.

Results

The study included 51 women and 27 men with an average age of 48 years. The mean viscosity measurement for a normal thyroid gland was 1.10 ± 0.41 Pa.s (ranging from 0.38 to 2.25 Pa.s). There were no significant differences in viscosity between the left and right lobes of the thyroid gland. We found no significant variations in viscosity based on gender, age, or body mass index (BMI). There was a notable positive correlation between thyroid viscosity and stiffness measurements ( = 0.717, < 0.001).

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that STVi is a highly reliable method for assessing the thyroid. This technique holds promise as a new, non-invasive approach to evaluating thyroid parenchyma viscosity.

© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Bentham Science Publishers.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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2025-01-02
2025-07-12

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Sound Touch Viscosity (STVi) for Thyroid Gland Evaluation in Healthy Individuals: A Pilot Study
Curr. Med. Imaging 21, e15734056335791 (2025); https://doi.org/10.2174/0115734056335791241202115022
/content/journals/cmir/10.2174/0115734056335791241202115022
/content/journals/cmir/10.2174/0115734056335791241202115022
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  • Article Type:     Research Article
Keyword(s): Healthy subjects; linear array transducer; Thyroid elastography; Thyroid gland; Ultrasound; Viscosity

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