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Abstract
Background: To correlate the biochemical thyroid
profiles with the clinical presentation of patients with
enlarged thyroid gland.
Methods: In this descriptive study , 100 patients with
goiter were selected. Clinical signs of hyper or
hypothyroidism were noted. After history and
examination, findings were recorded on the proforma and
diagnosis was established whether the patient was
clinically euthyroid or not. Blood samples were taken for
biochemical evaluation to make a comparison of clinical
finding with laboratory findings. The spearman
correlation coefficient was calculated to determine the
correlation between various attributes of the patient with
the problem of goiter. A multivariate regression analysis
was used to establish the neutrality between the clinical
assessment and bio chemical examination (two alternate
tests) employed for the evaluation of the status of thyroid
in patients with goitre.
Results: Sixty eight patients were clinically found to
have simple goitre and 62 out of these were confirmed to
be so by thyroid function tests. Whereas remaining 6
patients were found toxic biochemically. Clinical
diagnosis was accurate in 91.17 % of cases of clinically
euthyroid. Thirty two patients were having clinical
features of toxicity which was confirmed to be so by
biochemical assessment. Accuracy of clinical assessment of
toxicity was 100 %.
Conclusions: Thyroid status of a patient with goitre
can be promptly assessed clinically. Though the
importance of thyroid function tests still stand when one
or more of clinical features of toxicity make clinical
judgment confusing, for medico legal purpose and
patients on beta blockers