[Association between preoperative serum thyroid-stimulating hormone level and nonfunctioning malignant nodule thyroid disease].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether serum thyroid-stimulating hormone(TSH) levels are of value in predicting malignancy in patients with nodular thyroid disease. The relationship between TSH levels and thyroid cancer incidence was also investigated.

METHOD

One hundred and eight patients with thyroid tumors who underwent surgical treatment were included in this study (25 cases of papillary thyroid cancer and 83 cases of benign tumors). The data of their preoperative serum TSH level, gender, age, number of tumors detected by ultrasonic inspection, and pathological type were retrospectively analyzed, and their association with thyroid cancer incidence was explored. Logistic regression analysis was used to predict thyroid cancer risk factors.

RESULT

Patients with malignancy had a higher mean value of TSH than that of the patients with benignancy [(1.94±1.01)mlU/L vs (1.16± 0.85)mIU/L, respectively; P<0.05]. Compared with the patients below the population mean, patients above the population mean had a significantly higher malignancy rate (35.9% vs 15.9%, P<0.05). High serum TSH level (OR=10.913, P=0.001), male (OR=4. 845, P=0.028) and age ≥45 (OR=10.831, P=0.001) are independent risk factors of thyroid cancer.

CONCLUSION

The preoperative serum TSH level may be useful in predicting the probability of cancer. The high serum TSH level, male, age ≥45 are risk factors of thyroid cancer.