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The Relationship of Thyroid Tissue Weight and Volume to Malignancy

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Abstract

The relationship of thyroid tissue weight and volume to malignancy in nodular goiter patients is not clear. The general belief is that heavier and larger tissues are related to malignancy. Total thyroidectomy was performed in 52 nodular goiter patients (41 females and 11 males; age range 20–78 years; mean age 47.8 years) with suspected malignancy. Resected fresh tissues were weighed with a precision scale, and computed tomography (CT) images were acquired immediately thereafter for volumetric evaluation. Thirty cases (57%) were benign, and 22 (43%) cases were malign. The average weights of benign and malign thyroid tissues were 92.38 ± 71.09 g and 52.40 ± 49.75 g, respectively (p = 0.02). The average volumes of the benign and malign tissues were 19.8 cm3 and 12.1 cm3, respectively (p = 0.02). Cases of malign thyroid tissues are lighter and smaller than those of benign cases.

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Acknowledgments

We highly appreciate the efforts of Monica Ann Malt, MSN, RN, and CPAN (Bezmialem Vakif University, Turkey) in language editing of this paper.

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Authors

Contributions

Erhan Aysan MD Prof: hypothesis, establishing the author team, conducting the study, researcher, writing the article.

Ozlem Direnc Aksoy MD: evaluation of radiological images, researcher, writing the article.

Hakan Atasoy Std: obtaining ethics committee and other permissions, researcher.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erhan Aysan.

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The prospective clinical study was planned and approval was obtained from the Human Local Ethics Committee of Bezmialem Vakif University. The patients were informed verbally and received written informed consent.

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Aysan, E., Aksoy, O.D. & Atasoy, H. The Relationship of Thyroid Tissue Weight and Volume to Malignancy. Indian J Surg 83, 472–475 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12262-020-02107-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12262-020-02107-z

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