Highlights
- •Pediatric thyroid volume and measurements in all three dimensions show a tendency to increase until 18 years of age.
- •The depth of the right lobe shows the strongest correlation with thyroid volume.
- •Reference data will be helpful for screening of the thyroid gland in the pediatric population.
Abstract
Purpose
To evaluate age-dependent reference values for measurements of the thyroid gland in
pediatric patients.
Method
In total 425 chest and neck computed tomography images of pediatric patients without
pathology of the thyroid gland were retrospectively reviewed. Measurements of the
thyroid gland were obtained in three dimensions (width, depth, length). The total
volume was the sum of volumes of each lobe. Measurements were compared among the six
groups according to age from 0 to 18 years.
Results
There were moderate to strong positive linear correlations between age and all values
(r = 0.58–0.82, all p < 0.001). The total volume of the thyroid gland showed a strong positive linear correlation
with the three linear measurements of each lobe (all r > 0.7, all p < 0.001). Among these measurements, the depth of the right lobe showed the highest
Pearson correlation coefficient with the total volume of the thyroid gland (r = 0.859).
Conclusion
The depth of right lobe could be a representative measurement of total thyroid gland
volume, similar to prior findings in adults.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 09, 2019
Accepted:
April 8,
2019
Received in revised form:
April 1,
2019
Received:
February 7,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
