Thyroid gland structural disorders
The diseases connected with the thyroid gland structural disorders are more frequent than those connected with the function disorders. They are the thyroid gland enlargement, nodes and cysts formation. The best method of the thyroid gland structural disorders is ultrasonic diagnostics. Palpation and visual diagnostic are less informative.
If ultrasoud diagnostics reveals the volume of thyroid gland more than 18 ml in women and more than 25 ml in men is may be considered as diffuse enlargement of the thyroid gland or diffuse goiter. If there are nodules in the thyroid gland than it is considered as node goiter. Nodules may be present in normal-sized thyroid gland.
There are different nodules as per their reasons, cellular structure, secretion ability and it is important for prognosis and treatment of the illness. The most important thing here is the cellular structure of the nodules: whether they are malignant or not. There is only one method providing 90-95% reliability: fine needle puncture biopsy of the nodes. A surgeon does it under ultrasound control. Than the fragment of the tissue is taken from the hollow puncture needle and investigated with microscope by a cytologist.
If the malignancy is revealed than an oncologist plans further treatment. In most cases it is surgical. No other treatment of cancer gives as positive prognosis as surgery does.
Unfortunately one can confirm but cannot reject malignancy diagnosis. The 100% rejection of malignancy can be done after the surgery when investigating the tissue taken off. That´s why a node is always suspicious and should be checked once a year with ultrasonic investigation that should be analyzed by experienced endocrinologist.
Besides, the nodes may produce excessive hormones as well as not produce at all. The first case leads to hyperthyreosis, the second one – to hypothyreosis. In most cases nodes do not influence the thyroid gland function and hormones T3, T4 and TTH are in norm.
