Experience in Diagnosis and Treatment for Chronic Lymphocytic Thyroiditis (Report of 77 Cases) / 中国普外基础与临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To summarize the experience in diagnosis and treatment for chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis or complicated with other thyroid diseases. Methods Seventy-seven patients were diagnosed as chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis or complicated with other thyroid diseases by operation and histological examination at this department from November 2002 to March 2005. All their clinical records including general information, the results of careful physical examination, thyroid correlated hormone tests, color Doppler, fine needle aspiration cytological examination and some intraoperative examinations have been retrospectively analyzed in this report. Results There were 53 cases of simple chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, 10 cases complicated by papillary carcinoma, 1 case complicated by follicular carcinoma, 2 cases complicated by non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, 6 cases complicated by nodular goiter, 4 cases complicated by follicular adenoma, and 1 complicated by parathyroid adenoma. Almost all the operations were successfull and the symptoms of the diseases were alleviated. Seventy-two patients had been followed up ranging from two months to two years differently and none of them relapsed. Sixty-three of these patients have received thyrine inhibition and vicariousness treatment, 2 patients who complicated by non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma had been hospitalized and 7 patients complicated by carcinoma were treated with iodine-131. Conclusion The clinical manifestations of chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis are complex, and it often complicated with other thyroid disease, which make it difficult to diagnose the diseases before operation. However, some ancillary methods such as careful physical examination, thyroid correlated hormone tests, !color Doppler and fine needle aspiration cytological examination may improve the accuracy of preoperative diagnosis. Intraoperative thyroid lamellar section and frozen histological examination are also very important for intraoperative diagnosis and operative modality selection.