Endocrine Abstracts

Family history of thyroid disease (Karger 2010) and family history of goiter (Singer 2011, Knudsen 2003, Gebremichael 2020) were found to be associated with risk of goiter though some did not observe this association (Phitayakorn 2006). On participants of the Isparta Menopause and Health (IMH) Study, we measured TSH (n=1099) and thyroid sonographic parameters (n=994) including TV, thyroid nodularity (TN) and heterogeneity (TH). Health related factors and history of goiter in the mother were evaluated through a questionnaire. History of maternal goiter was positive if participant recalled the existence of goiter in her mother and negative otherwise. Univariate and multivariate ordinal (for TV and TSH) and binary (for TH, TN) logistic regression was performed to evaluate the significance of history of maternal goiter as a predictor of TSH, TV, TN and TH. Stepwise model selection algorythm was applied. MVA was performed in 2 steps and response variables were also evaluated as predictors for each other in the second step. The age range of IMH study participants was 44-61. Median TV (interquartile range) was 13 (10, 18.75) ml. Median TSH (interquartile range) was 1.1858 (0.7527, 1.9576) uIU/ml. At least one thyroid nodule was present in 540 (54.44) women. Sonographic heterogeneity was present in 347 (34.98) women. n=170 (15.47) women had history of goiter in their mother. In univariate analysis, history of maternal goiter tended to predict increased likelihood of greater TV (P=0.0581) and predicted reduced likelihood of greater TSH (P=0.00076) whereas it was not associated with TN or TH. In multivariate analysis controlling for the effects of health related factors, history of goiter in the mother was found to be an independent predictor of TV (OR=1.492 (1.083-2.055), P=0.0144) and TSH (OR=0.616 (0.453-0.837), P=0.0019) but not of TN and TH. When multivariate models also included the other response variables, history of goiter in the mother remained independently associated with TSH but not with TV, whereas it also predicted the presence of TH (OR=1.548 (1.076-2.227), P=0.0185). History of maternal goiter may have long-term impact on thyroid health of the female offspring. These alterations may be observed even after considerable time lapse at midife. The association between history of maternal goiter and their daughter’s TSH may be more robust than the association between history of maternal goiter and daugter’s TV.