Prevalence of Thyroid Incidentaloma on Ultrasound

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Thyroid is a butterfly shaped endocrine gland responsible for the regulation of body metabolism. Ultrasound is widely used for the detection of thyroid incidentaloma.
Methodology: This study was conducted as a descriptive cross-sectional study among patients attending ultrasound clinics in Azadi hospitals and outpatient sonographic clinics for the assessment of the thyroid. A total 200 patients were enrolled. SPSS was used for the data analysis and a p-value of 0.05 was used as the level of significance.
Results: Only 75 cases of incidentalomas were identified on sonographic assessment, others had a normal sonography; the prevalence of incidentaloma 37.5%. The majority of the incidentaloma were identified in females (84%) compared to males (16%). Around 2.7% had past history of radiation exposure. And only 2 out of the 75 cases were identified to have malignant potentials.
Conclusion: Thyroid incidentaloma is reported to be a prevalent finding in literatures, similar results were seen in our study with a prevalence of 37.5%. Screening for incidentaloma using sonography can be beneficial for the early detection of incidental thyroid carcinomas as the incidence is raising overtime