Clinical, sonographical and cytological comparison of toxic and non-toxic thyroid nodules

Abstract

Aim: To compare patients with toxic and non-toxic nodular/multinodular goiter in terms of clinical, sonographical and cytological features. Material and Method: The medical data of 326 patients were reviewed retrospectively. Clinical and sonographic features were examined. Four hundred and eighty-one nodules were compared sonographically and cytologically. One hundred twenty-four patients had toxic nodular goiter and 202 of them had non-toxic nodular goiter. Results: The toxic nodular goiter group was older, they had more male sex, more multi-nodularity, larger thyroid glands and nodules with more sonographically suspicious features (p<0.05). One hundred sixty-five of 481 nodules belonged to the toxic group. Nodule size was > 40 mm in 13.9% of the nodules in the toxic group and 5.4% of those in the non-toxic group (p= 0.003). Central vascularization (p <0.0001) and hypoechogenicity (p =0.005) were higher in nodules of the toxic group. The two groups were similar in terms of fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) results. Conclusion: Toxic nodules can have sonographically suspicious features like non-toxic nodules, and their evaluation with FNAB should not be avoided or postponed, thus ensuring more adequate treatment and follow-up of toxic nodular thyroid disease.

Keywords

• Thyroid nodule
• toxic
• sonography
• biopsy
• malignancy risk

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