Histopathological Patterns of Thyroid Disease in Al-Madinah Region of Saudi Arabia

Objectives: This study aimed to characterize the histopathological pattern of thyroid lesions among Saudipatients and to highlight the age and gender variations of these lesions as base line data. Materials and
Methods:We retrospectively analyzed the data from thyroid specimens received at the Department of Pathology, KingFahad Hospital, Madinah, Saudi Arabia from January 2006 to December 2013.
Results: The 292 thyroidectomyspecimens received during the study period came from 230 (78.8%) females and 62 (21.2%) males giving afemale: male ratio of 3.7:1. Age of the patients ranged from 14 to 95 years with a mean age 39.7 years. Twohundred and eleven (72.3%) cases were found to be non-neoplastic and 81 (27.7%) cases were neoplastic. Thenon-neoplastic group included: colloid goiter, including both diffuse and nodular goiter (170 cases; 58.2%),nodular hyperplasia (28 cases; 9.6%), Hashimoto/chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis (12 cases; 4.1%), and Grave’sdisease (1 case; 0.3%). In neoplastic lesions, there were 7 benign tumors and 74 malignant tumors. Among thebenign tumors, 5 were follicular adenomas and 2 were Hurthle cell adenomas. Papillary carcinoma was thecommonest malignant tumor accounting for 87.8% of all thyroid malignancies, followed by lymphoma, follicularcarcinoma and medullary carcinoma. The size of papillary carcinoma was more than 2 cm in 40 cases (76.9%).
Conclusions: Non-neoplastic thyroid lesions were more common than neoplastic ones. Colloid goiter was themost common lesion. Follicular adenoma was the commonest benign tumor and papillary carcinoma was thecommonest malignant lesion. There appears to be a slightly increased trend of papillary carcinoma diagnosis,most being diagnosed at an advanced stage.