Concurrent Presence of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis with Papillary Carcinoma of Thyroid- A Retrospective Study

Introduction: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is the most common inflammatory disease of thyroid. Papillary carcinoma of thyroid is an epithelial malignancy and is the most frequent thyroid neoplasm. The association between Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and papillary carcinoma of thyroid has been debatable due to conflicting evidence.

Aim: To know the socio-demographic determinants of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and to find out the association between Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and papillary carcinoma of thyroid.

Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, clinical and histopathological data of 720 patients who underwent thyroidectomy between October 2013 to September 2018 were studied at Father Muller Medical College, Mangalore, Karnataka, India. Clinical case records, from October 2013 till September 2018, and histopathological reports were collected. The results were expressed in percentages, proportions and means with standard deviation. Chi-square test was used to find out the association of age group, sex and histopathologic findings with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. The data was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 and p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

Results: Mean age of the study participants with and without Hashimoto’s thyroiditis was 45.94 (±10.60) years and 45.88 (±12.88) years respectively. Out of 720 study participants, 623 (86.5%) were females and 97 (13.5%) males. The most common indication for thyroidectomy was benign thyroid disorders followed by papillary carcinoma of thyroid. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis was seen significantly higher in females compared to males (χ2=12.214, p<0.001) and odds of females having Hashimoto’s thyroiditis was 3.76 times that of males. Papillary carcinoma was seen in 157 cases out of 720 cases, and amongst them, 51 (32.5%) had Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Papillary carcinoma was found to be associated with the presence of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (χ2=17.5, p<0.001).

Conclusion: Female sex was the significant socio-demographic determinant of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Papillary carcinoma of thyroid was found to be associated with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.