Abstract:Objective To investigate the risk factors of central lymph node metastasis (CLNM) in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Methods The clinical data of 303 patients with PTC who underwent surgical treatment in our hospital from August 2016 to December 2018 were collected. The influence of sex, age, body mass index (BMI), tumor maximum diameter, tumor number, tumor location, membrane infiltration, thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) on CLNM in PTC were retrospectively analyzed. Results The total metastatic rate of CLNM was 39.27% in 116 out of 303 patients. Univariate results showed that sex, age, BMI, tumor maximum diameter, number of tumors and membranous infiltration were associated with CLNM. The differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that sex [Ol ^ R = 0.454, (95% CI: 0.224, 0.921)], age [Ol ^ R = 0.957, (95% CI: 0.936, 0.978)] , tumor maximum diameter [Ol ^ R = 1.438, (95% CI: 1.117, 1.852)] and the membrane infiltration [Ol ^ R = 0.399, (95% CI: 0.230, 0.691)] were risk factors for CLNM in patients with PTC. Subject operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis showed that the Yoden index was the largest when the age was 45.5 years old and the maximum diameter of the tumor was 0.75cm. The area under the curve were 0.643 and 0.691; sensitivity was 0.526 (95% CI: 0.580, 0.706) and 0.845 (95% CI: 0.632, 0.750); specificity was 0.711 (95%CI: 0.580, 0.706) and 0.471 (95% CI: 0.632, 0.750), respectively. Conclusions The occurrence of CLNM in PTC is related to several factors. When the patient is male, age < 45.5, tumor maximum diameter ≥ 0.75 cm and membranous infiltration, CLNM is more likely to occur and it is recommended that the central lymph node dissection (CLND) should be performed.