Differences between Chronological Age and Height Age in Goiter Interpretation

Objective: Some factors (age, weight, height, body mass index, body surface area, puberty stage, and iodine nutrition status) may affect thyroid volume (TV). We aimed to investigate the differences between chronological age and height age in interpreting goiter.
Materials and Methods: The thyroid ultrasonography records of 420 children aged 1–18 years were evaluated. We searched the difference between the interpretations of goiter by recalculating the TV standard deviation score (SDS) in terms of both chronological ages and corrected for height age. We also evaluated those with negative thyroid autoantibodies and normal thyroid hormone levels by subgroup analysis. The evaluation of TV according to chronological age and height age and the change of goiter interpretation were compared with the McNemar test.
Results: A total of 180 children who had euthyroid and negative thyroid autoantibodies were analyzed. A weak correlation was detected between TV and age (r=0.29, p<0.001), body weight (r=0.35, p<0.001), height (r=0.32, p<0.001), height age (r=0.32, p<0.001), body weight SDS (r=0.20, p=0.008) and height SDS (r=0.21, p=0.005). When the changes of goiter interpretation were compared, a statistically significant difference was determined in the whole group (p=0.029); however, there was no significant difference in children who were both euthyroid and found to have negative thyroid auto-antibodies (p=0.375).
Conclusion: We observed that the interpretation of goiter changed according to chronological age and height age if thyroid hormone level and/or thyroid autoantibody positivity were included.