Nomogram Including Elastography for Prediction of Contralateral Central Lymph Node Metastasis in Solitary Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Preoperatively.

Background: It is controversial whether contralateral prophylactic central neck dissection (PCND) should be performed for patients with solitary and clinical lymph node negative (cN) papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) although routine ipsilateral PCND is required.

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop an improved nomogram including clinical features, ultrasound, and acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography for the prediction of contralateral central lymph node metastasis (CLNM) in patients with solitary and cN PTC in the preoperative period.

Materials And Methods: A total of 340 patients were retrospectively included as the training cohort and 170 patients as the external validation cohort.