Measuring thyroid gland volume: should we change the correction factor?

OBJECTIVE In the assessment of thyroid volume with sonography (formula of an ellipsoid), a correction factor is used. Whereas previously 0.524 was used, the World Health Organization has recently changed (after the first review) this correction factor to 0.479. We compare volume measurement of the thyroid using different correction factors to automated volume measurement using MDCT, and we define an optimal correction factor in thyroid volume assessment. CONCLUSION Acceptable correction factors are situated in the range of 0.494-0.554. We propose a correction factor of 0.529 when using the ellipsoid formula.

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