Primary thyroid lymphoma (PTL) is a rare malignant disorder, and ultrasound plays an important role in PTL diagnosis and follow-up surveillance. Prediction of refractory/relapse events in PTL patients is an essential issue, yet no ultrasonic PTL features have been discovered to be related to refractory/local relapse events. From January 2008 to September 2022, newly diagnosed PTL patients in our center who underwent standard first-line treatment and received an ultrasound examination before treatment were enrolled. Data regarding patients’ clinical and sonographic features, as well as their therapeutic responses were collected. Subjects with an ideal prognosis were compared to those with refractory/relapse events. In total, 37 PTL patients were analyzed, including 26 with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, 2 with follicular lymphoma and 9 with mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma. During the median follow-up of 25 months, 30 patients obtained a complete response, 4 were refractory patients, and 3 experienced local relapse. No significant difference was detected in the baseline clinical characteristics between patients with an ideal prognosis and those with refractory/local relapse events. In terms of sonographic features, however, an event-free survival (EFS) curve comparison revealed that patients with bilobar enlargement (defined as an anterior-posterior diameter > 2.5 cm on both sides of thyroid lobes) had a poorer EFS than those without (P < 0.0001), and patients with diffuse type had a poorer EFS than those with mixed/nodular types (P = 0.043). No significant difference was observed in EFS between patients with or without signs of suspicious cervical lymph node metastasis, rich blood signal distribution or symptoms of trachea compression. PTL patients with an anterior-posterior diameter > 2.5 cm for both thyroid lobes or PTL patients of the diffuse ultrasound type could be prone to refractory/local relapse events.

中文翻译：

---

超声在预测原发性甲状腺淋巴瘤患者局部难治/复发事件中的潜在价值

原发性甲状腺淋巴瘤（PTL）是一种罕见的恶性疾病，超声在PTL诊断和随访监测中发挥着重要作用。PTL患者难治/复发事件的预测是一个重要问题，但尚未发现超声PTL特征与难治/局部复发事件相关。纳入2008年1月至2022年9月在我中心接受标准一线治疗并在治疗前接受超声检查的初诊PTL患者。收集有关患者临床和超声特征及其治疗反应的数据。将具有理想预后的受试者与具有难治性/复发事件的受试者进行比较。总共分析了 37 例 PTL 患者，其中 26 例患有弥漫性大 B 细胞淋巴瘤，2 例患有滤泡性淋巴瘤，9 例患有粘膜相关淋巴组织淋巴瘤。在中位随访25个月期间，30名患者获得完全缓解，4名患者为难治性患者，3名患者出现局部复发。预后理想的患者与难治性/局部复发事件患者的基线临床特征没有显着差异。然而，就超声特征而言，无事件生存（EFS）曲线比较显示，双叶增大（定义为甲状腺叶两侧前后直径> 2.5 cm）的患者的 EFS 比无双叶增大的患者差。 P < 0.0001），弥漫型患者的 EFS 比混合/结节型患者差（P = 0.043）。有或无可疑颈部淋巴结转移体征、丰富的血液信号分布或气管受压症状的患者之间的EFS没有观察到显着差异。双叶前后径 > 2.5 cm 的 PTL 患者或弥散超声类型的 PTL 患者可能容易发生难治性/局部复发事件。