Thyroid ultrasound findings in a follow-up survey of children from three Japanese prefectures: Aomori, Yamanashi and Nagasaki

• DOI: 10.1038/srep09046
• Publication Date: 2015-03-12T12:18:46Z
• Authors: Naomi Hayashida; Misa Imaizumi; Hiroki Shimura; Fumihiko Furuya; Noriyuki Okubo; Yasushi Asari; Takeshi Nigawara; Sanae Midorikawa; Kazuhiko Kotani; Shigeyuki Nakaji; Akira Ohtsuru; Takashi Akamizu; Masafumi Kitaoka; Shinichi Suzuki; Nobuyuki Taniguchi; Shunichi Yamashita; Noboru Takamura
• Keywords: Adolescent; Thyroid Gland; Article; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Japan; Child, Preschool; Humans; Public Health Surveillance; Thyroid Nodule; Child; Follow-Up Studies; Ultrasonography

AbstractWe conducted ultrasound thyroid screening in cohort of 4,365 children aged between 3 to 18 years in three Japanese prefectures (Aomori, Yamanashi and Nagasaki) using the same procedures as used in the Fukushima Health Survey. Forty-four children had nodules ≥ 5.1 mm in diameter or cysts ≥ 20.1 mm in diameter detected at the first screening and 31 of these children underwent the second follow-up survey. We collected information from thyroid ultrasound examinations and final clinical diagnoses and re-categorized the thyroid findings after the second examination. Twenty children had nodules ≥ 5.1 mm in diameter or cysts ≥ 20.1 mm in diameter at the second examination; of these, one child was diagnosed with a thyroid papillary carcinoma and the remaining 19 children were diagnosed with possibly benign nodules such as adenomas, adenomatous nodules and adenomatous goiters. A further 11 children were re-categorized as “no further examinations were required.” Our results suggest that ultrasound thyroid findings in children may change with a relatively short-term passing period and that thyroid cancer may exist at a very low but certain frequency in the general childhood population.