Risk Factors Associated with Benign and Malignant Thyroid Nodules in Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases
Table 3
Comparative analysis between patients presenting with no nodules, benign nodules and thyroid carcinoma in Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.
Graves’ disease ( = 198)
Hashimoto's thyroiditis ( = 77)
PTC
Benign
No nodule
PTC
Benign
No nodule
Gender—male/female (%)
1/9 (0.51/4.55)
3/43 (1.52/21.72)
14/128 (7.07/64.65)
0.823
0/6 (0/7.79)
2/33 (2.6/42.86)
3/33 (3.9/42.86)
1
Age—yrs (range)
39 (28–58)
55.3 (27–84)
43 (13–82.8)
<0.001
c
55 (51–84)
55 (15–75)
49.5 (17–79)
0.556
Age at diagnosis—yrs (range)
30 (17–49)
48 (20–81)
36 (9–77)
<0.001
c
49 (44–70)
47 (5–65)
43.5 (14–77)
0.246
Disease duration—yrs (range)
9 (3–18)
5.5 (0.6–20)
5.0 (0.5–5)
0.054
8.5 (2–14)
6.7 (0.2–16)
7 (0.1–21)
0.91
Total thyroid volume—cc (range)
55.1 (16.2–167.5)
28.9 (4.1–242)
23.1 (1.6–201.3)
0.022
d
26.7 (6.4–111.9)
17.3 (1–74.1)
9.8 (2.1–69.2)
0.013
e
Time of followup—yrs (range)
9 (3–18)
5 (0.3–20)
5 (0.1–20)
0.04
d
8.5 (3–14)
6 (0.2–16)
7 (0.1–21)
0.842
Smoking (%)a
4 (3.01)
14 (10.53)
49 (36.84)
0.757
1 (2.94)
8 (23.53)
5 (14.71)
0.523
Time of treatment—yrs (range)
3.5 (1–6)
4 (0.3–17)
3 (0.1–20)
0.416
7 (2–14)
6 (1–16)
7 (1–15)
0.984
Number of nodules (range)
1.5 (0–5)
2 (1–7)
NA
0.641*
3 (1–5)
2 (1–6)
NA
0.037
*
Size of largest nodule on US—cm (range)
2.2 (0.5–6.8)
1.6 (0.7–5.7)
NA
0.172*
2.1 (1–4.3)
1.6 (0.5–4.6)
NA
0.234*
Ophthalmopathy (%)b
5 (3.65)
18 (13.14)
69 (50.36)
0.125
NA
NA
NA
NA
Active disease (%)
10 (5.05)
41 (20.71)
125 (63.13)
0.507
NA
NA
NA
NA
Radioiodine treatment (%)
0
17 (8.59)
49 (24.75)
0.069
NA
NA
NA
NA
99mTc uptake—% (range)
11.9 (0.8–29)
8.1 (0.2–82)
10 (0.3–77)
0.348
NA
NA
NA
NA
a = 133 for GD and = 34 for HT.
b = 137 for GD.
cBenign versus no nodule and benign versus PTC.
dNo nodule versus PTC.
eBenign versus no nodule.
*Mann-Whitney test. NA: not available.
