Significance of pre-operative examination for pathological type and surgical mode in thyroid cancer

    LING Rui, LI Nanª²lin, ZHANG Zhen, WANG Ling, YANG Hua

    1Department of Vascular & Endocrine Surgery, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi¬ðan 710033,China, 2Department of Surgery, Second Affiliated Hospital, Anhui College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei 230061, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To assess the pathology type of thyroid nodules on the basis of clinical manifestation and other parameters of preª²operative examination and to investigate its relationship with operation mode. METHODS: Using paraffin embedded tissue sections as the gold standard of diagnosing thyroid carcinoma, we divided 483 cases into four groups: group ¢ñ was papillary thyroid carcinoma, group ¢ò was follicular thyroid carcinoma, group ¢ó was undifferentiated carcinoma and group ¢ô was medullary carcinoma. Ultrasonographic scanning was used to analyze the clinical manifestations and the relationship between the clinical manifestations and pathology type was assessed. RESULTS: Of the 483 cases, the 4 groups accounted for 68.1%, 23.4%, 2.9% and 5.6%, respectively. There was no significantly statistical correlation between the age and malignancy of the thyroid nodules between group ¢ñ, group ¢ò and group ¢ô, but there was significantly statistical correlation between group ¢ñ, group ¢ò, group ¢ô and group ¢ó. The same was true of the diameter of the nodules. The cases with diameter >4 cm were more likely to have undifferentiated carcinoma. There was no significantly statistical correlation between group ¢ñ, ¢ò, ¢ó and ¢ô group for the number of nodules, but significantly statistical correlation was found between group ¢ñ/¢ò and group ¢ó /¢ô in cold nodules and the intumescence of lymph node in the neck. The examination of thyroid function was not very helpful in the pathological classification of thyroid cancer. CONCLUSION: Preª²operative examination is important in determining the pathological type and choosing proper surgical mode. ......