Estimation of Thyroid Volume in Children Using Ultrasonography

Abstract

Thyroid gland is one of most important endocrine glands in the body, it plays a vital role in growth control and its measurements tends to change in respect to age, sex, weight and ethnic group of the individual. The aim of this study is estimation of thyroid gland volume in children using ultrasonography. The sample size is 50 subjects (normal subjects) 30 female and 20 male were included from Alshikh Mustafa Alamin School for girls and Hassona high school for boys (13-15years) old. The data was collected using ultra sound machine used was portable GE {general electric) machine with linear high frequency [7MHz] transducer. Thyroid isthmus thickness was measured and RT and LT thyroid lobes length, width and AP diameters were measured and then using ellipsoid method the thyroid volume of both lobes was estimated. The unit of measurements used was metric and the study was done with ideal protocol. The results showed that the RT thyroid lobe is larger than the LT measuring (2.19gr) (1.83gr) respectively. There is no significant association between thyroid measurements and subject in the range of (13-15 years old) there is no significant between the thyroid measurements and the subjects geographic area and living area, there is no association between thyroid measurements and subjects age except in the LT lobe length which is found bigger in females .in the other hand there is strong linear correlation between the subjects weight and the isthmus thickness and RT lobe AP diameter. According to this strong leaner correlation this study recommends to take the subjects BMI in respect when measuring the volume of thyroid gland.