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Prevalence of solitary hot, cold and normal functioning thyroid nodules in patients with first evaluation for a solitary thyroid nodule

2005; Thieme Medical Publishers (Germany); Volume: 113; Issue: S 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1055/s-2005-862906

1439-3646

C Engelhardt, D Graf, François R. Herrmann, Markus Luster, Christian Reiners, B. Quadbeck, Klaus Mann, R Paschke, Dagmar Führer,

BRCA gene mutations in cancer

Functional properties of thyroid nodules are defined by their ability for increased, normal or decreased radionuclide uptake on scintiscanning, resulting in a classification as hot (HTN)/warm/WTN), normal functioning (NTN) or cold thyroid nodules (CTN). In a multi-centre pilot study conducted in Saxony (n=103 patients) Westfalia (n=209 patients) and Bavaria (n=153 patients), we addressed the question of (I) present distribution of solitary hyper-/hypo- and normal functioning thyroid nodules in Germany and (II) whether a correlation exists between the TSH-value and nodular function in euthyroid patients with solitary thyroid nodules. Clinical and biochemical data, thyroid ultrasound and scintiscan results were obtained from 466 consecutive patients (348 women, 118 men, aged 19–87 yr.) presenting for a first evaluation of a solitary thyroid nodule >1cm. Scintiscan showed 19% hot (complete suppression of surr. tissue), 18% warm (increased focal uptake with no suppression of surr. tissue;WTN), nodules, 39% normal functioning and 24% cold thyroid nodules. Except for a slightly higher prevalence of thyroid autonomy in Saxony, the distribution of functional nodule characteristics was similar in the three Bundesländer. Median TSH values (mU/l) were ~0.1 in HTN (range <0.01–0.4), ~0.8 in WTN (range 0.1–2.3), ~0.85 in NTN (range 0.1–2.05) and ~0.9 in CTNs (range 0.1–2.45). While all HTN had TSH-values <0.4, there were no significant differences in the overall TSH values for WTN, NTN and CTN. The median volumes were 7ml in HTN, 2.3ml in WTN, 2.3ml in NTN and 4ml in CTN. Age distribution of the investigated patients showed a trend towards higher age in patients with HTN (median 59yrs) compared to WTN, NTN and CTN (median 49–52yrs).