Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the association between Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) and differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC).

Patients and methods: Seven hundred seventy two patients with thyroid nodular goiter who underwent fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), followed up at Endocrinology and Metabolism out-patient clinic of Cerrahpasa Medical School, University of Istanbul between January 2000 and December 2010 were included retrospectively in this study. All patients were evaluated for the presence of HT diagnosis by measuring thyroid autoantibodies. If a patient had at least one positive thyroid autoantibody, then the patient was defined as HT with thyroid nodules. Demographic features, ultrasonography (US) findings and cytology results of the patients were evaluated.

Results: Three hundred ninety three patients (39 male and 354 female, mean age 46.11±12.53) with thyroid nodules associated with HT (HT group), 379 patients (53 male and 326 female, mean age 47.5±12.6) with thyroid nodules without HT (control group) were determined. The prevalance of DTC in the patients with HT was 6.6%. In contrast, it was 12.9% in the control group (P=0.03). US findings were similar in both groups. When the whole population is considered in terms of autoimmunity, positive anti-TPO rate was found significantly higher in benign nodules (P=0.008).

Conclusion: The malignancy rate in the patients without HT was twice more than the patients with HT. Many of the US features of benign thyroid nodules are similar in patients with and patients without HT.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest that could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the research project.

Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector.