Determination of thyroid volume by ultrasound

Abstract: Background: Ultrasound is safe and painless, produces pictures of the inside of the body using sound waves (not use ionizing radiation), thus there is no radiation exposure to the patient. The thyroid gland is among the most commonly imaged glands using ultrasound due to the limitation of clinical examination. The Radiographers' skills in ultrasound differ according to the country and the basic formations. And throught this study we want to emphasize about the role of radiographer. Aim: The porpuse of this study is determine the volume and morphological characteristics of normal thyroid order to get reference values for young adults. Material and Method: We selected 204 students consist of male and female from Danang University of Medical Technology And Pharmacy were studied. Mean age of our subjects was 22 (range 18-25) all of them were healthy and with normal thyroid gland status. Descriptive statistics and analytic statistic was used. Results: In our study, the thyroid volume between female and male is different. The total thyroid volume significantly correlated with individual’s height, weight, body surface area and body mass index. The mean of total thyroid volume was 7.44 ± 2.09ml (range 3.51-14.57). The thyroid volume was best correlated with height (r = 0.44; p = 0.0001). Conclusion: Knowledge about the size of the thyroid gland is important in following the thyroid diseases and the examination of the gland. The radiographer's role is very important in determining the volume of thyroid.Radiographer is an important member of the diagnostic health care team.