Determination of the relationship between autoantibody level and thyroid nodule in patients with hashimoto's thyroiditis

Hashimoto's thyroiditis; It is a chronic inflammatory disease of the thyroid gland and is considered the most common cause of hypothyroidism. Thyroid autoantibodies (anti TPO and anti TG) and ultrasonography (USG) images are used for diagnosis. Hypoechogenicity, pseudonodules and heterogeneous parenchyma can be seen on USG. There are many studies examining the relationship between Hashimoto's thyroiditis and malignancy. The aim of our study; The nodule detected in the USG of patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis; To examine the relationship between detection and properties of thyroid autoantibodies. Patients over the age of 18 who were diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis by clinical, ultrasonographic and biochemical values were included in our study. Active inflammatory diseases, covid-19 and other active infection conditions, malignancy, pregnancy, additional systemic diseases, drug use that may affect hemogram data (eg, corticosteroids) and patients under 18 years of age were not included in the study. TSH, T3, T4, anti TPO, anti Tg, hemogram parameters and USG reports of the patients were recorded. A total of 255 patients, 209 women and 46 men, were included in our study. The mean age of women was 41.81±14.4, and the mean age of men was 43.59±14.5. According to the results of USG, heterogeneity was observed in the thyroid parenchyma in 36.5%, and pseudonodular appearance was present in 62.7% of them. Nodules were detected on USG in 44.7% of the population. 83.3% were female and 16.77% male. TIAB was performed in 15.3% of the patients with nodules. 10.6% were reported as benign, 1.6% as malignant and atypia of uncertain significance. When the groups with and without nodules were compared, no significant difference was found in terms of thyroid autoantibodies and tft values (p>0.05). Since the number of patients whose biopsy results were reported as malignant was low, statistically significant results could not be obtained (malignant: 2 benign: 27). In our study, no significant difference was found between the groups with and without a nodule with Hashimoto's thyroiditis in terms of thyroid autoantibodies and function tests. Since the number of patients with malignant results was low, the relationship with autoantibody levels could not be evaluated. We think that we obtained different results compared to similar studies due to the fact that our study was single-centered and the number of patients was small. We believe that prospective studies with more participants are needed on this subject. KEYWORDS: Hashimoto, Nodule, Anti TPO, Anti TG