Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox medical condition
A goitre (British English), or goiter (American English), is a swelling in the neck resulting from an enlarged thyroid gland.<ref name="BTF">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="nhs">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A goitre can be associated with a thyroid that is not functioning properly.
Worldwide, over 90% of goitre cases are caused by iodine deficiency.<ref name=Hoermann_2005>Template:Cite book</ref> The term is from the Latin gutturia, meaning throat. Most goitres are not cancerous (benign), though they may be potentially harmful.
Signs and symptomsEdit
A goitre can present as a palpable or visible enlargement of the thyroid gland at the base of the neck. A goitre, if associated with hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, may be present with symptoms of the underlying disorder. For hyperthyroidism, the most common symptoms are associated with adrenergic stimulation: tachycardia (increased heart rate), palpitations, nervousness, tremor, increased blood pressure and heat intolerance. Clinical manifestations are often related to hypermetabolism (increased metabolism), excessive thyroid hormone, an increase in oxygen consumption, metabolic changes in protein metabolism, immunologic stimulation of diffuse goitre, and ocular changes (exophthalmos).<ref>Template:Cite bookTemplate:Pn</ref> Hypothyroid people commonly have poor appetite, cold intolerance, constipation, lethargy and may undergo weight gain. However, these symptoms are often non-specific and make diagnosis difficult.Template:Citation needed
According to the WHO classification of goitre by palpation, the severity of goitre is currently graded as grade 0, grade 1, grade 2.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Struma 001.jpg
Goitre Class II, WHO grade 2
- Kone med stor struma.jpg
Goitre Class III, WHO grade 2
CausesEdit
Worldwide, the most common cause for goitre is iodine deficiency, commonly seen in countries that scarcely use iodized salt. Selenium deficiency is also considered a contributing factor. In countries that use iodized salt, Hashimoto's thyroiditis is the most common cause.<ref name=Kumar>Template:Cite book</ref> Goitre can also result from cyanide poisoning, which is particularly common in tropical countries where people eat the cyanide-rich cassava root as the staple food.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
| Cause | Pathophysiology | Resultant thyroid activity | Growth pattern | Treatment | Incidence and prevalence | Prognosis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iodine deficiency | Hyperplasia of thyroid to compensate for decreased efficacy | Can cause hypothyroidism | Diffuse | Iodine | Constitutes over 90% cases of goitre worldwide<ref name="Hoermann_2005"/> | Increased size of thyroid may be permanent if untreated for around five years |
| Congenital hypothyroidism | Inborn errors of thyroid hormone synthesis | Hypothyroidism | ||||
| Goitrogen ingestion | ||||||
| Adverse drug reactions | ||||||
| Hashimoto's thyroiditis | Autoimmune disease in which the thyroid gland is gradually destroyed. Infiltration of lymphocytes. | Hypothyroidism | Diffuse and lobulated<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> | Thyroid hormone replacement | Prevalence: 1 to 1.5 in a 1000 | Remission with treatment |
| Pituitary disease | Hypersecretion of thyroid stimulating hormone, almost always by a pituitary adenoma<ref name=Weiss2009>Thyrotropin (TSH)-secreting pituitary adenomas. By Roy E Weiss and Samuel Refetoff. Last literature review version 19.1: January 2011. This topic last updated: 2 July 2009</ref> | Diffuse | Pituitary surgery | Very rare<ref name=Weiss2009/> | ||
| Graves' disease—also called Basedow syndrome | Autoantibodies (TSHR-Ab) that activate the TSH-receptor (TSHR) | Hyperthyroidism | Diffuse | Antithyroid agents, radioiodine, surgery | Will develop in about 0.5% of males and 3% of females | Remission with treatment, but still lower quality of life for 14 to 21 years after treatment, with lower mood and lower vitality, regardless of the choice of treatment<ref name="pmid16356093">Template:Cite journal</ref> |
| Thyroiditis | Acute or chronic inflammation | Can be hyperthyroidism initially, but progress to hypothyroidism | ||||
| Thyroid cancer | Usually uninodular | Overall relative 5-year survival rate of 85% for females and 74% for males<ref name=european>Numbers from EUROCARE, from Page 10 in: Template:Cite book</ref> | ||||
| Benign thyroid neoplasms | Usually hyperthyroidism | Usually uninodular | Mostly harmless<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> | |||
| Thyroid hormone insensitivity | Secretional hyperthyroidism, Symptomatic hypothyroidism |
Diffuse |
DiagnosisEdit
Goitre may be diagnosed via a thyroid function test in an individual suspected of having it.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
TypesEdit
A goitre may be classified either as nodular or diffuse. Nodular goitres are either of one nodule (uninodular) or of multiple nodules (multinodular).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Multinodular goiter (MNG) is the most common disorder of the thyroid gland.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Growth pattern
- Uninodular goitre: one thyroid nodule; can be either inactive, or active (toxic) – autonomously producing thyroid hormone.
- Multinodular goitre: multiple nodules;<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> can likewise be inactive or toxic, the latter is called toxic multinodular goitre and associated with hyperthyroidism. These nodules grow up at varying rates and secrete thyroid hormone autonomously, thereby suppressing TSH-dependent growth and function in the rest of gland. Inactive nodules in the same goitre can be malignant.<ref name="BMJ">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Thyroid cancer is identified in 13.7% of the patients operated for multinodular goitre.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Diffuse goitre: the whole thyroid appearing to be enlarged due to hyperplasia.
- Size
- Class I: the goitre in normal posture of the head cannot be seen; it is only found by palpation.
- Class II: the goitre is palpable and can be easily seen.
- Class III: the goitre is very large and is retrosternal (partially or totally lying below the sternum), pressure results in compression marks.
TreatmentEdit
Goitre is treated according to the cause. If the thyroid gland is producing an excess of thyroid hormones (T3 and T4), radioactive iodine is given to the patient to shrink the gland. If goitre is caused by iodine deficiency, small doses of iodide in the form of Lugol's iodine or KI solution are given. If the goitre is associated with an underactive thyroid, thyroid supplements are used as treatment. Sometimes a partial or complete thyroidectomy is required.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Medical and scientific developmentsEdit
The discovery of iodine's importance in thyroid function and its role in preventing goiter marked a significant medical breakthrough. The introduction of iodized salt in the early 20th century became a key public health initiative, effectively reducing the prevalence of goiter in previously affected regions. This measure was one of the earliest and most successful examples of mass preventive health campaigns.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
EpidemiologyEdit
Goitre is more common among women, but this includes the many types of goitre caused by autoimmune problems, and not only those caused by simple lack of iodine.<ref>1</ref>
Iodine mainly accumulates in the sea and in the topsoil. Before iodine enrichment programs, goiters were common in areas with repeated flooding or glacial activities, which erodes the topsoil. It is endemic in populations where the intake of iodine is less than 10 μg per day.<ref>Goitre as a determinant of the prevalence and severity of iodine deficiency disorders in populations, World Health Organization - 2014</ref>
Examples of such regions include the alpine regions of Southern Europe (such as Switzerland), the Himalayans, the Great Lakes basin, etc. As reported in 1923, all the domestic animals have goiter in some of the glacial valleys of Southern Alaska. It was so severe in Pemberton Meadows that it was difficult to raise young animals there.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
HistoryEdit
Chinese physicians of the Tang dynasty (618–907) were the first to successfully treat patients with goitre by using the iodine-rich thyroid gland of animals such as sheep and pigs—in raw, pill, or powdered form.<ref name = "Temple_1986">Template:Cite book</ref> This was outlined in Zhen Quan's (d. 643 AD) book, as well as several others.<ref name = "Temple_1986" /> One Chinese book, The Pharmacopoeia of the Heavenly Husbandman, asserted that iodine-rich sargassum was used to treat goitre patients by the 1st century BC, but this book was written much later.<ref name = "Temple_1986" />
In the 12th century, Zayn al-Din al-Jurjani, a Persian physician, provided the first description of Graves' disease after noting the association of goitre and a displacement of the eye known as exophthalmos in his Thesaurus of the Shah of Khwarazm, the major medical dictionary of its time.<ref name=WNI>Template:WhoNamedIt – the history and naming of the disease</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The disease was later named after Irish doctor Robert James Graves, who described a case of goitre with exophthalmos in 1835. The German Karl Adolph von Basedow also independently reported the same constellation of symptoms in 1840, while earlier reports of the disease were also published by the Italians Giuseppe Flajani and Antonio Giuseppe Testa, in 1802 and 1810 respectively,<ref>Template:WhoNamedIt</ref> and by the English physician Caleb Hillier Parry (a friend of Edward Jenner) in the late 18th century.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Paracelsus (1493–1541) was the first person to propose a relationship between goitre and minerals (particularly lead) in drinking water.<ref>"Paracelsus" Britannica</ref> Iodine was later discovered by Bernard Courtois in 1811 from seaweed ash.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Goitre was previously common in many areas that were deficient in iodine in the soil. For example, in the English Midlands, the condition was known as Derbyshire Neck. In the United States, goitre was found in the Appalachian,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Great Lakes, Midwest, and Intermountain regions. The condition is now practically absent in affluent nations, where table salt is supplemented with iodine. However, it is still prevalent in India, China,<ref>"In Raising the World's I.Q., the Secret's in the Salt", article by Donald G. McNeil, Jr., 16 December 2006, The New York Times</ref> Central Asia, and Central Africa.
Goitre had been prevalent in the alpine countries for a long time. Switzerland reduced the condition by introducing iodized salt in 1922. The Bavarian tracht in the Miesbach and Salzburg regions, which appeared in the 19th century, includes a choker, dubbed Kropfband (struma band) which was used to hide either the goitre or the remnants of goitre surgery.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In various regions around the world, particularly in mountainous areas, the prevalence of goiter was linked to iodine deficiency in the diet. For example, the Alps, the Himalayas, and the Andes had high rates of goiter due to the iodine-poor soil. In these regions, iodine deficiency led to widespread hormonal imbalances, particularly affecting thyroid function.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Society and cultureEdit
In the 1920s wearing bottles of iodine around the neck was believed to prevent goitre.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Notable casesEdit
- Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara Bush were both diagnosed with Graves' disease and goitres, within two years of each other. The disease caused hyperthyroidism and cardiac dysrhythmia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Scientists said that, absent an environmental cause, the odds of both a husband and wife having Graves' disease might be 1 in 100,000 or as low as 1 in 3,000,000.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
HeraldryEdit
The coat of arms and crest of Die Kröpfner, of Tyrol, showed a man "afflicted with a large goitre", an apparent pun on the German for the word ("Kropf").<ref name="Fox-Davies1904">Template:Cite book</ref>
Social ImpactsEdit
In some historical contexts, goiters were so prevalent that they became normalized within the culture. For instance, in certain Alpine regions, large goiters were sometimes considered a sign of beauty. Conversely, in other areas, individuals with goiters faced social stigma, which could lead to marginalization and discrimination.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
SummarizationEdit
Goiter, resulting primarily from iodine deficiency, has historically been a widespread condition with significant health and social implications. Advances in nutrition and public health have greatly reduced its prevalence, but understanding its historical context helps in appreciating the development of endocrinology and public health measures.Template:Fact
See alsoEdit
- David Marine conducted substantial research on the treatment of goitre with iodine.
- Endemic goitre
- Struma ovarii—a kind of teratoma
- Thyroid hormone receptor
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
Template:Medical resources Template:Thyroid disease Template:Authority control