Clinical Department of Production Animals, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals & Health Research Unit (FARAH), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, Liege, Belgium.
Department of Endocrinology, University Hospital of Liege, University of Liege, Liege, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2024 May 2;19(5):e0302997. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302997. eCollection 2024.
Thyroid ultrasonography examination is widely used in human and small animal medicine. However, it has rarely been applied in cattle. The aim of this study was to determine whether the measurements of the thyroid gland by ultrasound examination correlate to those taken during post-mortem examination. A sample of 22 cows and 23 calves was selected for thyroid gland evaluation. An ultrasound scan was performed ante-mortem, followed by euthanasia (for medical reasons) or slaughtered in the food chain and the dissection of the thyroid gland was therefore performed. Post-mortem, the gland was weighed and its dimensions and volume measured. The volume and weight measurements were compared with the predicted ones on US using the formulas available in the literature. Finally, histological examination was performed on thyroid glands. The dimensions of the thyroid gland measured by ultrasonography were significantly different (p<0.05) from those observed post-mortem, except for lobe lengths in calves (p>0.1). However, in calves, there was no systematic bias between the ultrasound and post-mortem examination of the thyroid gland, which were concordant (with an average error of 18%). Cystic lesions were observed on ultrasound in 9/22 cows and could be found on histological examination in 7 of these. Other lesions, such as follicular hypoplasia and hyperplasia, were seen on histological examination but not on ultrasound. Although the ultrasound measurements did not significantly correlate with those taken post-mortem, this examination may allow to differentiate non-standard thyroids in the case of hyperplastic goiter, as demonstrated in other species. This study also describes and illustrates interesting lesions of the thyroid gland in cattle. These findings are innovative in the description of the use of thyroid ultrasound in cattle, although further studies are needed to allow deeper conclusions.
甲状腺超声检查在人类和小动物医学中广泛应用，但在牛中应用较少。本研究旨在确定超声检查测量的甲状腺与死后检查的相关性。选择了 22 头奶牛和 23 头小牛进行甲状腺评估。进行了生前超声扫描，然后因医疗原因安乐死或在食物链中屠宰，因此进行了甲状腺解剖。死后，对腺体进行称重，并测量其尺寸和体积。将体积和重量测量值与文献中可用公式预测的 US 值进行比较。最后，对甲状腺进行了组织学检查。超声测量的甲状腺尺寸与死后观察的尺寸有显著差异（p<0.05），但小牛的叶长除外（p>0.1）。然而，在小牛中，超声和死后甲状腺检查之间没有系统偏差，两者是一致的（平均误差为 18%）。在 9/22 头奶牛的超声检查中观察到囊性病变，在其中 7 头可在组织学检查中发现。在组织学检查中观察到其他病变，如滤泡发育不良和增生，但在超声检查中没有观察到。尽管超声测量值与死后测量值无显著相关性，但这种检查可能允许在增生性甲状腺肿等情况下区分非标准甲状腺，如在其他物种中所示。本研究还描述和说明了牛甲状腺的一些有趣病变。这些发现是在牛中使用甲状腺超声检查的描述中的创新，尽管需要进一步研究以得出更深入的结论。
