Introduction: Thyroid gland volume is highly variable as it is greatly influenced by age, gender, anthropometric measurements, and geographical location. It has become essential for every population to determine the reference range of their normal thyroid gland volume in healthy individuals. This, in turn, will help the population in grading goitre and guide large-scale iodine monitoring programs. Ultrasound, being more precise than clinical examination in identifying enlarged thyroid glands, overcomes the problems of overestimation of goitre prevalence and marked interobserver variability associated with palpation estimates. A nomogram of thyroid volume in our environment is important to serve as a reference point in managing patients with thyroid pathologies, especially goitre. The purpose of this study was to establish reference ranges of total thyroid volume among the normal adult population in central India using ultrasonography and correlate it with thyroid function tests.
Methods and Material: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital. A total of 410 healthy subjects were included. B-mode Ultrasonography was used to measure the total thyroid volume by combining the volume of both lobes obtained using the ellipsoid formula. Blood samples were taken for thyroid function tests. Age-specific reference values for thyroid volume were obtained.
Statistical analysis used: IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software for Windows, Version 26.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp was used for analysis.
Results: The mean total thyroid gland volume of all study subjects was \(6.90\pm1.74\) ml. Males had a significantly higher gland volume (\(7.30\pm1.86\) ml) compared to females (\(6.63\pm1.61\) ml) (\(P<0.001\)). The volume of the right lobe was significantly greater than that of the left lobe in both genders (\(3.76\pm0.96\) ml vs \(3.14\pm0.89\) ml, \(P<0.001\)). No significant correlation was found between gland volume and thyroid function tests.
Conclusions: We attempted to contribute to establishing the reference values for our local population, and further large studies are required to establish nationwide reference values of thyroid gland volume.
