A descriptive study on solitary nodular goitre

Background: Solitary nodular goitre is clinically defined as a single nodule in otherwise normal thyroid gland. It can be benign or malignant. Solitary nodule has a higher risk of malignancy (15-20%) when compared to multi-nodular goitre (3-5%). Aim: We conducted a study to evaluate the clinical and radiological factors associated with occurrence of malignancy in Solitary Nodular Goitre (SNG); to find out the incidence of SNG in this part of North Chennai; to analyze the correlation of preoperative cytological and postoperative histopathological results. Materials and methods: It was a prospective study on fifty patients who were clinically diagnosed as SNG. All patients were evaluated with an Ultrasonogram (USG) Thyroid and Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC). After surgery, the Histopathological Examination (HPE) reports were compared with the FNAC findings. Results: SNG was more common in the age group of 21-40 years. 86% of SNG patients were females. The incidence of malignancy in SNG this study was 12% which commonly involved males. Among the malignancies, papillary carcinoma was the most common and Hashimoto's thyroiditis was found to be associated with it. The presence of microcalcifications and paratracheal nodes in USG were more in favour of malignancy. The FNAC report correlated well with the HPE reports, the accuracy of FNAC being 90% in this study. Conclusion: SNG has a high risk of malignancy, especially in males and the most common type being papillary carcinoma. FNAC is the gold standard pre-operative investigation that is well correlated with post operative HPE results.