Goiter resident survival guide
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Fatemeh Dehghani Firouzabadi, MD [2]
Overview
A goiter is an enlarged thyroid gland that is located in the front of your neck producing thyroid hormones. Enlarged thyroid gland is able to produce too much, a little, or enough thyroid hormones. Thyroid hormones control the metabolism rate in the different organ systems such as the heart,liver,muscles,brain, and other parts of the body. Therefore, if the amount of these hormones decreased, the metabolism rate will be declined and the body will feel tired and cold. Also, releasing too much of these hormones can increase metabolism rate leading to fell warm and nervous.There are other symptoms such as tightness in the throat,cough, hoarseness, swallowing and breathing problems due to the effect of the thyroid mass on surrounding tissues. Risk factors for goiter includes; being a woman, being over age 40, being pregnant or in menopause, having a family history of autoimmune disease or goiter, having been exposed to radiation as a child or having had radiation treatment to your neck or chest, and having a diet low in iodine. [1][2].
Causes
Common CausesCommon causes of goiter may include:
Common cause of goiter may include:
Diagnosis
Shown below is an algorithm summarizing the diagnosis of [[disease name]] according the the [...] guidelines.
| Suspected goiter based on serum TPO antibodies, Serum TSH Serum T3, Serum T4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Increase TSH and serum TPO antibodies, Decrease T3, T4 | Decrease TSH, Increase T3, T4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hashimoto's thyroiditis | multinodular goiter (MNG) or Grave's disease | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Treatment
Shown below is an algorithm summarizing the treatment of [[Goiter]] according the the [American Thyroid Association] guidelines.
| Treatment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hypothyroidism | Hyperthyroidism | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Levothyroxine | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Radioactive Iodine | Lugol's iodine | Antithyroid drugs such as carbimazole, methimazole | β-adrenergic blockers such as propranolol | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Do's
- The content in this section is in bullet points.
Don'ts
- The content in this section is in bullet points.