Histopathological spectrum of thyroid lesions

Introduction: Thyroid lesions are fairly common & have a wide spectrum of diseases ranging from functional, immune mediated to neoplastic lesions. Objectives: 1) To study the occurrence of various lesions of the thyroid. 2) To study and correlate clinico-morphological features. Results/ Observation: All thyroidectomy specimens were included in the study period of two years i.e, from January 2009 to December 2010. A total of 120 specimens were studied by routine paraffin processing and heamatoxylin eosin stain. Detailed histopathological study was done and correlated with age, sex & clinical presentation. Out of 120 cases, non-neoplastic lesions accounted for 83.33% and included thyroglossal duct cyst (2.5%), Hashimoto thyroiditis (9.1%), colloid goitre (29.1%) & multinodular goitre (42.5%). Neoplastic lesions accounted for 16.67% and consisted of follicular adenoma (12.5%) as the only benign lesion. Papillary carcinoma (2.5%), medullary carcinoma (0.83%) and anaplastic carcinoma (0.83%) were malignant lesions found. Conclusion: Thyroid lesions predominantly affects females during 3rd and 4th decades of life and commonly present as neck swelling. Multinodular goitre was the commonest non- neoplastic lesion followed by colloid goitre. Follicular adenoma was the only benign neoplasm seen while papillary, medullary and anaplastic carcinoma were the malignant thyroid neoplasms.