Radionuclide scanning in single palpable thyroid nodule.

Radionuclide scanning using technetium pertechnetate rectilinear scan of the thyroid was performed on 428 patients judged to have single thyroid nodule by palpation. Eighty one percent of these patients were show to show decrease uptake in single thyroid nodule. Among these 184 cases, histological evidences of carcinoma were seen in 64 cases (34.7%), 61 cases were follicular adenoma, while 14 were autoimmune thyroiditis and 8 were simple cysts. It was concluded that the hypofunctioning solitary nodule without clinical evidence of malignancy need not always be cancerous. Still the evidence recognized is high enough to warrant surgery in all patients with palpable single nodule and reduced nodular uptake.