Spectrum of thyroid disorders: A retrospective study at a medical college hospital

Abstract

Background: The spectrum of thyroid disease varies from underactive thyroidism (hypo) to overactive (hyper) thyroidism. It is a common endocrine disease reported worldwide and leads to major consequences of the human body, if left untreated. Aim: The aim is to exhibit the spectrum of thyroid disorders based on age and sex during the period of study in the hospital. Settings and Design: This study was conducted in a teaching and medical college hospital in Kerala State during a time period of five years from April 2005 to March 2010. Materials and Methods: The medical records department follow the guidelines of World Health Organization-International Classification of Diseases (WHO-ICD)-10 for classification of diseases and collected data were analysed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS) package. Statistical Analysis: 'Z' test applied for finding out the comparison of proportions. Results: Out of 1088 thyroid cases, 152 (14%) were males and 936 (86%) were females. In males and females, the highest proportion of cases was reported in 40-60 years, which accounted for 58 cases (38.2%) and 386 cases (41.2%), respectively. The age group <20 years only shows significant difference between male and female (P = 0.02). The most commonly observed type of thyroid disorder is non-toxic multinodular goiter (E04.2), which is 528 (48.5%). In females, the most common type of thyroid disorder is non-toxic multi nodular goitre (E04.2) and in males it is hypothyroidism, unspecified (E03.9) is 45 29.6%. Conclusion: Public awareness regarding the thyroid disorder is important especially among the females and untreated thyroid disease can produce serious consequences to the health.