Disease of the Thyroid Gland: A Histopathological Perspective

The thyroid is an important endocrine gland. It sits with its butterfly shape on the anterior neck region,
lying on the larynx and trachea midway between the thyroid cartilage and the suprasternal notch, at
the level of C5-T1 vertebrae. Thyroid is affected primarily by disease conditions which are variously
classified and are not uncommon worldwide. They could lead to enlargement of the thyroid gland
thereby earning the designation “goiter”. Globally, iodine deficiency has been identified as a major
cause of goiter. This was a descriptive retrospective study of consecutive cases of thyroid specimen
analyzed at the Histopathology Department of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria,
between January 2008 and December 2017. The aim of this work is to study thyroid disorders
histologically, relating these findings to age and sex, and comparing same with previous reports.
The Hospital’s Medical records and the Histopathology Departments served as sources for extraction
of patient’s data which included age, sex, and histological diagnosis. Archival slides were reviewed to
confirm the diagnosis of the thyroid lesion.
Three hundred and eleven (311) cases of thyroid disease were diagnosed histologically at the Jos
University Teaching Hospital during the study period. These lesions were broadly classified into
developmental anomalies, hyperplasias, immune/inflammatory diseases, and neoplasm. They
accounted for 1.9% (6 cases), 81.3% (253 cases), 3.9% (12 cases), and 12.9% (40 cases) of all
cases respectively. The age range of the study population was 1 year to 70 years, with a mean age of
41.2±12.0 SD, and peak incidence at 30 years to 39 years. There were 25 males and 286 females
making a male female (M/F) ratio of 1:10.2.
Thyroid disorders are essentially a female disease in our environment occurring commonly in the third
and fourth decade of life.