Thyroid nodules are very common all over the world, and China is no exception. Ultrasound plays an important role in determining the risk stratification of thyroid nodules, which is critical for clinical management of thyroid nodules. For the past few years, many versions of TIRADS (Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System) have been put forward by several institutions with the aim to identify whether nodules require fine-needle biopsy or ultrasound follow-up. However, no version of TIRADS has been widely adopted worldwide till date. In China, as many as ten versions of TIRADS have been used in different hospitals nationwide, causing a lot of confusion. With the support of the Superficial Organ and Vascular Ultrasound Group of the Society of Ultrasound in Medicine of the Chinese Medical Association, the Chinese-TIRADS that is in line with China's national conditions and medical status was established based on literature review, expert consensus, and multicenter data provided by the Chinese Artificial Intelligence Alliance for Thyroid and Breast Ultrasound.

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Objective. This study is aimed at exploring the accuracy of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in grading renal artery stenosis. Methods. 122 renal arteries with suspected renal artery stenosis were selected. DSA, DUS, and CEUS were performed for all patients with suspected renal artery stenosis in the research. DSA was selected as the gold standard. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of CEUS or Doppler ultrasound (DUS) in the diagnosis of renal artery stenosis were analyzed. The consistency between CEUS and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) was compared. The accuracy of DUS or CEUS in grading renal artery stenosis was assessed by the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and compared between groups. Results. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of CEUS in the diagnosis of renal artery stenosis were 88.9%, 87.8%, 88.5%, 93.5%, and 80.0%, respectively. There was no significant difference in grading renal artery stenosis between CEUS and DSA (X2=0.643, P=0.424). 77 of the 122 renal arteries were diagnosed with the stenosis rate more than 30% by CEUS. Compared with the results of DSA, the kappa value of CEUS was 0.749 (P<0.05). Conclusion. CEUS is accurate in grading renal artery stenosis, and it may represent the method of choice in diagnosing renal artery stenosis.

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