Examination of thyroid function tests of patients admitted for reasons other than thyroid disease

Thyroid diseases are among the diseases frequently encountered in our outpatient clinics and thyroid nodules are frequently encountered among them. To make a decision about a patient's thyroid status, it's necessary to evaluate the complaints, physical examination findings and thyroid function tests together. In clinical practice, it's recommended to measure the fT4 level with TSH measurement. After the first evaluation, the presence of autoimmune thyroid diseases should be investigated by looking at ANTİ TPO, ANTİ TG and TSH receptor antibody levels according to thyroid function status. Thyroid ultrasonography, thyroid scintigraphy, I-131 uptake tests can be helpful in diagnosis in necessary patients. Thyroid ultrasonography result is important in people with thyroid gland disease, because the thyroid glands of the patients cannot be examined due to the working conditions of the polyclinic and the nodule cannot be palpated even though it is examined. According to the findings of the nodule detected on ultrasonography, it should be evaluated with FNAB when necessary. In this study, our aim is to examine the thyroid function tests and thyroid ultrasonography pathologies in people without known thyroid disease and who applied to our polyclinic between July 2013 and July 2022 with non-thyroid causes. In particular, it was aimed to determine the incidence of nodular thyroid diseases and to compare the number and localization characteristics of the nodule with autoantibody, age, gender, and FNAB result. For this purpose, 124 patients who did not have thyroid disease before, applied to our outpatient clinic for non-thyroid reasons, did not use cortisol-like drugs, were older than 18 years and had pathological findings on thyroid ultrasonography were analyzed retrospectively. 76.61% (n:95) of the patients were female, 81.45% (n:101) were between the ages of 30-70. In thyroid ultrasonography, Multinodular goiter 44.35% (n:55), thyroid with single nodule 23.38% (n:30), hashimato thyroiditis 21.77% (n:27thyroid nodule combined with Hashimoto's thyroiditis 8.06% (n:10) ), the Graves disease was found as 2.42% (n:3). The ratio of female patients with of nodular thyroid pathologies was %76. 53.3% of thyroid pathologies with single nodules were on the left, and 54.5% of Multinodular goiter had the largest nodule on the right. Of the nodular thyroid pathologies, 66.6% were euthyroid, 13% were hypothyroid, 10.7% subclinical hypothyroidism, 9.5% subclinical hyperthyroidism; Also, no hyperthyroidism was found at the time of diagnosis in patients with nodular thyroid. The rate of euthyroidism and hypothyroidism was found to be higher in Multinodular goiter patients with the largest nodule on the left compared to other nodular pathologies. The mean age at diagnosis for hashimato thyroiditiswas lower in women. The number of patients with hashimato thyroiditiswas 26, of which only 11.6% (n:3) had high ANTI TG; only 23.1%(n:6) patients with high ANTI TPO and 65.3% (n: 17) patients with both high levels were observed. ANTI TPO positivity was found to be more significant for hashimato thyroiditis. ANTI-TPO positivity was seen at a higher rate in patients with a single thyroid nodule who were left dominant than in patients with a left-dominant thyroid nodule. The relationship between TSH and ANTI TPO and ANTI TG was examined. In patients with ANTI TG negative, ANTI TPO positivity rate was found to be significantly higher when TSH level was high, and ANTI TPO negative rate was found to be significantly higher when TSH was normal. Conversely, no relationship was found between ANTI TG and TSH. In our study, TSH levels were separated as low, normal and high, and the relationship between ultrasonography groups and age groups (18-29, 30-70, 70+) was examined separately for each group, and no significant relationship was found. No thyroid pathology was found, which had a significant difference between gender and thyroid ultrasonography findings compared to other thyroid pathologies.