Does Thyroid Volume and Nodule Formation Increase in Patients with Euthyroid Metabolic Syndrome?

Objective: Metabolic syndrome and its related components are associated with functional and morphological alterations of the thyroid gland. The aim of our study is to examine thyroid volume and nodule prevalence in a case– control study of patients with metabolic syndrome. Design: 114 newly diagnosed euthyroid patients with Met S were randomly matched for age and gender with 123 subjects without Met S. Serum TSH, fT3, fT4, insulin resistance which was estimated by the HOMA-IR, as well as other Met S parameters were evaluated in both group. Thyroid ultrasonography was performed in all subjects. All subjects with thyroid nodules >1 cm were offered to undergo thyroid fine needle aspiration biopsy. Results: The study include a total of 237 patients. Among the 114 patients with Met S in the study, 18 were male and 96 were female. There were 123 control subjects, of whom 18 were male and 105 were female. Serum concentrations of FT3, FT4 and TSH were not significantly different between Met S and control group. Mean thyroid volume was significantly higher in Met S patients than in controls (p=0,008). Percentage of patients with thyroid nodules were similar. Thyroid volume was significantly negative correlated with TSH (r=0, 14, p=0, 02), and positive correlated with HOMA-IR (r=0,035, p=0,001). Four thyroid cancer cases were diagnosed in 47 Met S patients (8,5 %) with thyroid nodules undergoing FNAB and two thyroid cancer cases were diagnosed in control subjects (n=42, 4,76 % ) There was no statistically significant difference between two groups (p>0, 05). Conclusions: According to our results, thyroid volume was found to be significantly higher in the metabolic syndrome group than the control group. The incidence of thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer was similar in both group (p>0,05).