Review Article - Influences on the incidence and pathomorphological picture of thyroid disease

Abstract

Background: The thyroid serves the body with important endocrine functions. A variety of influences impinges on the incidence and pathomorphological picture of the thyroid gland. These influences that include: iodine deficiency; iodine sufficiency; gender and; imaging technology are elucidated further in this work. We used the Google search engine to search for literature on the subject from the internet. Iodine is associated with increased incidence of nodular goiter and follicular carcinoma. The world over the last few decades had transited from an era of iodine deficiency to its sufficiency leading to an increase in incidence of thyroiditis and papillary thyroid carcinoma. Estrogen and Estrogen receptor discovered in the thyroid is implicated in the increased frequency of thyroid disorders in females. Finally, advancement in thyroid imaging technology and its utilization has led to over-diagnosis and overtreatment of thyroid diseases.