Ultrasonography in the diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

Hashimoto's thyroiditis is a type of autoimmune thyroid disease with an increasing prevalence in past decades. Its diagnosisis mostly based on ultrasonography. Ultrasonography is a useful and essential tool to make this diagnosis based on the characteristics of the disease. In the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules, ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy is an effective method to distinguish Hashimoto's thyroiditis from other thyroid disorders. One exciting and recent advance is that non-invasive ultrasound-based methods have supplemented fine-needle aspiration to diagnose Hashimoto's thyroiditis under more complex conditions. In this review, we discuss the recent advantages of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis.