A clinico-pathological study of 100 patients with solitary 'cold' thyroid nodules.

One hundred consecutive patients were studied at the Auckland Hospital thyroid clinic over a two year period 1974 to 1976, who subsequently had surgical excision of a solitary cold nodule. Thyroid carcinoma was present in 17 percent, adenoma in 44 percent, colloid nodules in 25 percent and a thyroid cyst in 14 percent. Although thyroid neoplasms were significantly more frequent in patients under 40, other clinical or scan features analysed were not predictive of carcinoma or neoplasm.