Abstract:

[Abstract] Objective To detect serum levels of thyroid hormones in patients with thyroid nodules (TN), and investi? gate their relationship with the nature of TN.Methods A total of245patients with TN were recruited in the study. Accord? ing to levels of thyroid antibodies and postoperative pathological results, all patients were divided into nodular goiter (NG) group, thyroid adenoma (TA) group and thyroid cancer (TC) group. TC group was further classified as the TC with increased level of thyroid antibodies (TC-AB + group) and the TC with normal level of thyroid antibodies (TC-AB group). The serum levels of free T3(FT3), free T4(FT4) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) were detected for all patients before operation, and differences of thyroid hormones were analyzed between different groups.Results The serum level of TSH was signifi? cantly higher in TC group than that of NG group and TA group (P＜0.05). The serum level of FT3was significantly lower in TC-AB + group than that of NG group and TC-AB group. The serum level of FT4was significantly lower in TC-AB + group than that of NG group, and the serum TSH level was significantly higher than that of other groups (P＜0.05). Conclusion The increased serum levels of TSH were found in some patients with TC, which may partly attribute to their coexistence with autoimmune thyroiditis and subsequent hypothyroidism. The increased serum TSH level may not be the inherent characteris? tics of TC.

Key words: thyroid nodule, thyroid hormone, nodular goiter, thyroid adenoma, thyroid cancer, thyroid stimulating hormone