Evaluation of the relationship between clinical-biochemical-sonographic features and histology-pathology results of patients followed with thyroid nodules in our clinic

ABSTRACT Evaluation of the Relationship Between Clinical-Biochemical-Sonographic Features and Histology-Pathology Results of Patients Followed with Thyroid Nodules in Our Clinic Aim: Frequency of thyroid nodules has been increasing worldwide. Thyroid Fine-needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNAB) is often implemented due to the malignity possibility in thyroid nodules. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the correlation between surgical pathology results and demographical, laboratory, ultrasound characteristics and FNAB results of the patients who applied to our clinic with thyroid nodule. Material and Method: 400 patients who had FNAB were included in the study. The background characteristics such as age, gender, use of levothyroxine and ATD, history of RT to head-neck, history of familial malign syndrome, thyroid cancer history in the family were checked in addition to laboratory results of fT3, fT4, TSH, anti-tpo, anti-tg, post-op/current fT4, post-op/current TSH in all patients. In addition to the demographical information of the patients, ultrasound characteristics, the size of thyroid gland, the number of thyroid nodules, the diameter of dominant nodule, microcalcification, macrocalcification, irregular borders, echogenicity, the existence of halo, nodule content, the existence of cervical LAP, the existence of intrathoracic displacive gland, scintigraphic retention status of the nodule were investigated. The number of biopsy, the result of biopsy, the type of surgery if it had been performed, surgical pathology result and post-op complication data were also investigated. Findings: 86.5% (346) of the patients who were included in the study were female and 13.5% (54) of them were male. The mean age of the patients was 51.45. It was observed that the size of thyroid gland was bigger in males than females. It was found that the prevalence of atrophic gland and multinodularity increased with age. Microcalcification and solid nodules were found more often in females and the prevalence of cold nodules in females was higher than males according to scintigraphic characteristics. It was concluded that the probability of observing benign nodule was high in the patients who used levothyroxine, who were elderly and who had isoechoic nodules. No statistically significant difference was found between the patients' pathological results, gender and age findings. No statistically significant difference was found between the patients' pathological results and the diameter of nodule, the size of thyroid gland, the number of thyroid nodules, microcalcification, macrocalcification, and the existence of halo, nodule content, the existence of cervical LAP and the existence of intrathoracic displacive gland, scintigraphic retention statusof the nodule. We believe that this situation can be related to the small number of patients compared to similar studies. 18 of the patients who had surgical operation had thyroid nodule irregular borders and this was found to be significantly higher in patients in the group of papillary carcinoma. Conclusion: It was concluded the prevalence of thyroid nodules is increased with ageand higher in females. While older age and isoechoic nodule are considered as benign characteristics, it was found that irregular border is related to increased risk of malignity. Keywords: Thyroid Nodule, Thyroid cancer, Thyroid Fine-needle Aspiration Biopsy, Thyroid Ultrasound