Abstract

BUSTILLO MADRIGAL, Emilio; BUSTILLO SOLANO, Emilio  and  DENIS CANCIO, Humberto. Prevalence and characterization of the thyroid nodule and the diffuse goiter in an urban area. Rev Cubana Endocrinol [online]. 2014, vol.25, n.2, pp. 87-103. ISSN 1561-2953.

Introduction: thyroid nodule disease is a health problem in the adult population due to its high incidence. The diagnosis has improved in the last few decades as a result of the thyroid computer tomography. Previous research studies to analyze the situation of this disease and of diffuse goiter in the adult population did not exist in Sancti Spiritus province, so the prevalence study was conducted in Jatibonico city. Objective: to determine the prevalence of the thyroid nodule disease and of diffuse goiter in the adult populations from 3 physician's offices located in Jatibonico urban area as well as to determine the personal and family histories, the clinical picture of presentation, the ultrasonographic signs and the value of the thyroid-stimulating hormone in those people with thyroid nodule and diffuse goiter. Methods: the universe of study was an 18 years-old and over population of both sexes from 3 randomly selected physician's offices located in the urban area of Jatibonico (n= 6 126 people). The estimated sample for 95 % confidence interval was 337 persons and a total number of 405 individuals were surveyed. All of them were performed thyroid computer tomography. The thyroid-stimulating hormone was detected in 277 people. They were then classified into subjects having and not having the disease, and at the same time, there was sub-classification into thyroid nodule disease and diffuse goiter. Results: the prevalence of thyroid disease in the studied population was 41.97 % (CI- 95 %: 37.17-46.77 %). The sub-classification yielded the presence of thyroid nodule disease in 36.79 % of subjects (CI- 95 %: 32.09-41.48 %) and of diffuse goiter in 5.18 % (CI- 95 %: 3.02-7.33 %), respectively. The majority of patients suffering from this disease was asymptomatic (85.3 %) and distributed into all the age groups, with slight predominance of females. The high (32.85 %) and the subnormal (7.58 %) thyroid-stimulating hormones were detected in the studied patients. Conclusions: in the study population, the prevalence of the thyroid nodule disease was higher than that of the diffuse goiter.

Keywords : prevalence; thyroid nodule disease; diffuse goiter; clinical picture; ultrasonographic signs and thyroid-stimulating hormone.

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