Survey of thyroid nodules in elderly patients with type 2 Diabetic

Objective: To investigate the incidence of thyroid nodules in elderly patients with type 2 diabetic. Methods: The fasting blood-glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin and high-resolution ultrasonography of 528 elderly patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM group) and 312 healthy controls (control group) were detected and compared. Results: The total prevalence rate of thyroid nodules was 57.58% in the T2DM group, which was higher than that of the control group (45.83%)(P<0.01);and multiple nodules were most often seen. The incidence of thyroid nodules in the group over 70 was higher than that in the group over 50 in both the male and the female(P<0.05), while there was no statistical significance in different diabetic periods(P>0.05). Thyroid nodules were more commonly seen in the female (63.30%) than in the male (50.22%)(P<0.01);The prevalence rate of thyroid nodules demonstrated that there was no statistical significance between patients with glycosylated hemoglobin < 7% and ≥ 7% (P>0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that age, gender and diabetes were independent risk factors for thyroid nodules. Conclusions: The incidence of thyroid nodules is higher in elderly patients with type 2 diabetic than in the normal control. As the disease may affect the prognosis and treatment of T2DM, special attention and screening should be directed to those patients.