A Study of Thyroid Swellings in a Tertiary Care Hospital in India

The worldwide prevalence of goitre in the general population is estimated 4 to 7 percent and the incidence of malignancy in goitrous thyroid is about ten percent. Thyroid cancer is the most common among all endocrine malignancies. It is postulated that goitrous thyroid is a precursor lesion to the development of malignant thyroid diseases. As Chhaisgarh is a state well known for endemic goitre, this study focused on establishing the incidence of thyroid malignancy among goitrous thyroid swellings. With this view a retrospective study was carried out in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Bilaspur district of Chhaisgarh State. The present study was carried out among patients with thyroid swellings attending OPD in the Hospital. Total 316 thyroid swelling cases were examined for cytological examination during January 2004 to December 2009 i.e. 6 years duration. All thyroid neck swelling was examined for cytopathology. The maximum 70(22.15%) cases were presented and examined during year 2006. Out of total 316 cases 250(79.11%) were females and 92 (29.11%) cases were belonging to age interval 21–30 years. The mean age of total cases is 34.5±14.4. The majority of cases of thyroid swelling were diagnosed as goiter i.e. 111(35.13%). Based on these observations, although thyroid swelling is quite a common problem among patients attending medicine OPD in the hospital and among these cases goitrous thyroid is more common but thyroid malignancy is not a major issue as observed in the present study. However among thyroid malignancies, papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common histological type of malignancy.