ANALYTICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY AND DIAGNOSIS OF THYROID NODULE IN WESTERN ALGERIA (SIDI BEL ABBES REGION)

Thyroid nodule disease is a very common condition in clinical practice. We targeted this morbidity because of its frequency in the endemic area of western Algeria (Sidi bel Abbes region). The aim of this work was to study the epidemiological aspects and highlighting the importance of diagnostics means in the diagnosis accuracy of thyroid nodules and their preoperative evaluation. This was an epidemiological retrospective descriptive study of patients with thyroid nodule, operated at the department of surgery, in Sidi bel Abbes University Hospital HASSANI Abdelkader, during the period of ten years (January 2004 to December 2013). The medical records data were analyzed through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS Version 20.0). Of the 449 patients included, (92.65%) were women. Mean age of thyroid nodule patients at diagnosis was 45.07±13.43 years. The most affected blood group was type O +. In 60.56% of cases, the nodules were euthyroid. The median time between the discovery of the first thyroid signs and the first consultation was 49.34±56.94 months (0.5 - 420 months). The Phi coefficient reflect a very strong positive association between the forms of cold, hot, warm thyroid nodule and the seat of this pathology with ɸ = 1.027. Thus, the seat of thyroid nodule was influenced by the nature of nodule if solid, cystic or mixed with ɸ = 1.307. Also, the degree of association between the forms cold, hot, warm thyroid nodule and solid, cystic, mixed thyroid nodule was very strong positive with ɸ = 1.282. We concluded that in the region of Sidi Bel Abbes, thyroid nodule is a health dilemma which affected the more women with younger age than the men.