Endocrine Abstracts

Thyroid nodules were frequently incidentally discovered during radiologic studies of chest or neck. We investigated the prevalence and clinical importance of thyroid incidentaloma during carotid artery ultrasonography in patients with diabetes. We retrospectively reviewed the data of enrolling all diabetic patients who were performed carotid artery ultrasonography at the Diabetes Center of Wonju Severance Christian Hospital from January to December 2013. Chart reviews of all eligible patients were performed. For those diagnosed with thyroid nodules, ultrasonographic findings and diagnosis of the thyroid nodules were reviewed. Total subjects enrolled this study were 1,518 patients and mean age was 59.98±11.15 years. The prevalence of thyroid nodules discovered by carotid artery ultrasonography was 46% (803 of 1,518) and total 1,542 thyroid nodules were seen in the study. In these thyroid nodules, 157 cases (10.2%) were underwent fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). The results of diagnosis of fine needle aspiration biopsy were benign 73%, atypical cells with unsignificance 12.6%, papillary carcinoma 6.3%, and material insufficiency 8.2%. The prevalence of thyroid nodule was linearly increased by age. Routine carotid IMT measurement in diabetic patients may discover thyroid nodules more frequently than in healthy population, so clinicians should pursue further investigation of these nodules by clinical guidelines for thyroid nodules.