Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the patients’ age and goitre size in relation to the form of hyperthyroidism, as well as the relationship between patients’ age and goitre size and function.

Material and methods: The subject group included 484 patients (420 females and 64 males) with hyperthyroidism. Graves’ disease (GD) was diagnosed in 171 subjects and toxic nodular goitre (TNG) was found in 313 subjects. FT₃, fT₄, TSH (DELFIA technique) and TSHAb (radioreceptor method) were measured in all patients. Thyroid technetium-99m scan was performed and iodine uptake (RIU) was measured after 24 and 48 h. Thyroid mass was calculated based on thyroid scintigraphy.

Results: The results of biochemical tests were the following: fT₃ – 17.27±14.74 pmol/l (1.1–95.4), fT₄ – 31.99±19.67pmol/l (5.6–107), TSH – 0.03±0.025mIU/l (0.02–0.23) and TSHAb – 20.4±50.78 U/l (1.1–405). RIU24 h ranged from 8.3 to 89.8% (54.56±16.6) and RIU48h was from 6.2% to 86.5% (50.8±15.5). The mean age of GD patients was 47.12±13.14 years (18–84) and the one of TNG patients was 52.51±14.89 years (7–83). Thyroid mass in GD patients was 69.75±38.15g (5.4–204) and in TNG patients it was 36.05±29.27g (3.6–184). A comparison of mean values showed a statistically significant difference in age (P=0.0001) and thyroid mass (P<0.0001) between GD and TNG patients. A statistical analysis showed that there was relationship between age and goitre size in the whole group of patients (P=0.03), while there was no such relationship in GD and TNG patients. Moreover, no relationship between age and thyroid function was found.

Conclusions: Patients with GD are statistically younger than those with TNG, whereas goitre size in GD patients is statistically significantly bigger than in TNG patients. Moreover, no statistically significant relationship between age and thyroid function was found.