STUDIES IN NODULAR GOITER

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Abstract
The relative frequency of nodular and of nonnodular thyroid glands in both goitrous and nongoitrous districts has been repeatedly studied in Europe.1The few such studies in this country2deal exclusively with material from goitrous districts. Apparently no such survey in an Americal nongoitrous district has ever been made. Aschoff3and Clerc4state that in nongoitrous regions nodules in the thyroid gland are just as common as in goitrous regions but that they are usually microscopic. However, in our routine autopsy material, from a nongoitrous district, we encountered what seemed an unusually large number of thyroid nodules of fair size. Most of these nodules discovered post mortem had not been palpated ante mortem. This was disturbing in view of the current tendency to regard all such nodules as potentially malignant and to advise their extirpation as prophylactic treatment against the development of carcinoma of the thyroid gland.5Because of the apparent lack of a similar study in nongoitrous regions elsewhere in this country, and because of our impression that nodules in the thyroid gland are more common than clinically suspected in such

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