Thyroid carcinoma and hyperthyroidism: Correlating clinical diagnosis with histological and biochemical diagnosis

Abstract

Thyroid disease is common in Nigeria with several localities of endemic goitre. Clinical diagnosis is the main stay of diagnosis in rural areas because of lack of facilities for biochemical thyroid function test and histological examination of specimens. Moreover, with the depressed national economy, many of these patients cannot travel to the centres where these expensive investigations are done. A review of case notes of 140 patients and prospective study of 102 patients with thyroid disease were carried out. Out of 25 clinically diagnosed cases of hyperthyroidism 23 were biochemically confirmed. Also, of the 18 patients with clinical picture of thyroid carcinoma, 15 had histological confirmation. The study shows that hyperthyroidism and thyroid carcinoma can be diagnosed clinically with over 80% accuracy in the hands of experienced senior doctors. Therefore, only doubtful cases need detailed high powered investigations in such situations.

Keywords

• thyroid carcinoma
• hyperthyroidism
• clinical diagnosis.