Incidence of thyroid carcinomas in an extended retrospective study of 526 autopsies

Abstract

Thyroid cancer accounts for 1% of all malignancies, and is becoming increasingly common worldwide. The literature reports a prevalence of ~50% of thyroid nodules detected during autopsies in subjects with unknown thyroid pathology. An extended retrospective study of 526 autopsy cases was performed to identify the prevalence of thyroid carcinoma, among various types of thyroid nodules identified incidentally. Tissue samples were taken from thyroid nodules, for investigation of the presence of thyroid carcinoma, along with their macroscopic and microscopic features by means of histopathology and immunohistochemistry (IHC) methods. Histopathological diagnosis of malignancy was found in 51 cases of analyzed thyroid samples. Systematic detailed studies demonstrated that a thyroid gland, apparently normal on macroscopic examination, may be the site of pathological manifestations, sometimes presenting carcinomatous findings. Among thyroid carcinomas, the highest frequency was that of papillary microcarcinomas, which have a long evolution, and are incidentally detected during autopsies. Papillary microcarcinoma is an extremely common incidental finding and the vast majority of these tumors pursue a benign course. Furthermore, it is therefore necessary to create national screening programs for the early detection of thyroid carcinoma.

A Comprehensive Review of Pathological Examination in Forensic Medicine: Past, Present, and Future

“…de Noronha et al also disregarded the whole importance of gross examination of heart findings as most of the young sudden cardiac death patients showed grossly normal heart (45%), and only 10% exhibited coronary artery disease [36]. Mohorea et al were able to put their findings only based on microscopy as grossly, the thyroid glands were normal [37,38].…”

The Role of CEUS in the Evaluation of Thyroid Cancer: From Diagnosis to Local Staging

“…The six largest studies regarding differentiation between benign and metastatic cervical lymp nodes, conducted between 2014 and 2019, show that CEUS has a good diagnostic accuracy superior to standard US and Color-Doppler grayscale alone [59,74,[77][78][79] (Table 1). 3 The study divides patients into two groups, PTC (>10mm), PTMC (<10mm); 4 The evaluation is based on a prediction model combining both the parameters obtained from the CEUS and clinical parameters. Furthermore, both Hong et al and Chen et al demonstrate how a combination of US and CEUS is more accurate on the whole than any of these two techniques used individually: the Hong et al paper reported a detected a B mode US + CEUS accuracy of 92.2% (vs. 89.3% of CEUS and 84.6% of grayscale US alone) [77]; the Chen et al paper reported a B mode US + CEUS accuracy of 92.7% (vs. 89.1% of CEUS and 80.0% of grayscale US alone) [79].…”

“…It is noteworthy that the incidence of the thyroid nodule increases significantly as well as that of the malignant rate. [ 3 ]. However, baseline US alone is not always effective to achieve thyroid nodule characterization; that is why, especially in recent years, the support of other imaging modalities have become increasingly necessary to limit as much as possible the use of Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy/Cytology, Core biopsy or even the diagnostic thyroidectomy.…”

ecografía de tiroides realizada por profesionales no radiólogos

“…La presencia de nódulos tiroideos es muy frecuente, con una incidencia aproximada del 5% de nódulos detectables a la palpación, del 50% en las autopsias [14] y de hasta de 68% en la ecografía [15]. La ecografía de tiroides realizada por profesionales no radiólogos: abordaje sistemático de la exploración, realización e interpretación Alonso-Tores A; Monte-González JC; Castaño-Saiz AM et al…”