Are Doppler Ultrasound Parameters Correlated with Thyroid Antibody Levels in Hypothyroid Patients with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis?

Background: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is the most frequent etiology of hypothyroidism. The most popular imaging technique for assessing thyroid nodules and the thyroid gland's echogenicity and vascularity is thyroid ultrasonography.
Objective: To compare Doppler ultrasound parameters and thyroid-stimulating antibodies in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.
Patients and methods: Seventy-eight patients diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis were prospectively evaluated by grayscale and Doppler ultrasound examination. This study was done between October 2019 and October 2021 at South Egypt Cancer Institute. We evaluated the overall vascularity of the thyroid gland. Peak systolic velocity (PSV), end-diastolic velocity (EDV), and resistive index (RI) of the inferior thyroid arteries (ITAs) were measured. The serum levels of T3, T4, T3, T4, TSH, anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody (anti-TPO), and anti-thyroglobulin antibody (anti-TG) were assessed for all patients. We tested the correlations between the following variables: serum levels of TSH, T3, T4, anti-TPO, anti-Tg, and ITA-PSV, EDV, and RI of the ITAs.
Results: We found a strong correlation between thyroid antibodies and the Doppler ultrasound parameters. Anti-Tg and Anti-TPO are strongly correlated with PSV, EDV, and RI of the ITAs.
Conclusion: In Hashimoto’s thyroiditis patients, PSV, EDV, and RI of both ITAs are significantly correlated with the thyroid antibodies. These findings may help in the assessment of the efficacy of treatment and follow-up of these patients.