When the thyroid gland is generally enlarged, it is called the goiter. Goitre occurs most often due to insufficient iodine intake by food. In our country, especially in the Black Sea region, iodine is relatively rare, so goitre is frequent in these regions. This goiter-like form, which can be summarized as enlarging the deposits in a sense to better utilize the lesser iodine, spontaneously heals with iodine addition (often iodized table salt). Other forms of goiter may occur due to mass formation in the thyroid gland or some other cause.
Thyroid is a secretory gland that resembles a chalcane (thyroid is a Latin shield) formed by two distinct lobes (lobe, part meaning), which can be immediately felt under the throat and can be felt by hand.
Iodine, which we take with thyroid gland nutrients, is stored in the bloodstream. Iodine is an important element in the structure of thyroid hormones, which are found in two different forms, T3 and T4. While producing thyroid hormones and storing iodine, it takes hormone called TSH (Thyroid Stimulator (Hormone) Hormone) in the pituitary region.
The secretion of TSH is regulated by a hormone called TRH (TSH Releasing Hormone) secreted from the brain region called the hypothalamus.
Little Study of Thyroid Gland (Hypothyroidism)
Often autoimmune diseases (autoimmune disease, autoimmune disease, alienation of the body from one of its own tissues for unknown reasons and this "foreign" tissue immune system to remove the body as a result of attempts to remove the immune system of the body itself is destroying this tissue, in this case, due to the damage of the thyroid gland has been done less functioning. Hashimoto thyroiditis (thyroiditis, the thyroid gland is an inflammation of the autoimmune process (infection should not be confused with inflammation) if it is associated with goitre.
Despite the fact that the risk of developing hypothyroidism is present at all ages, the risk increases with age and after 2-4 years hypothyroidism occurs after 60 years.
Tests Evaluating Thyroid Gland Functions Free T4 (sT4) Total (total) T4 (T4) Total (total) T3 (T3) TSH Nowadays, laboratory methods have been developed that can even display very low TSH levels. Among these tests, it is the CT4 which best reflects the blood hormone levels and is usually preferred with TSH measurement.
Blood TSH measurement alone is a sensitive method that can reflect thyroid gland functions, and the presence of high thyroid hormones (T3, T4) is low and the presence of low thyroid hormones is high. In such cases, the level of the low or high is determined by making the sT4 level evaluation.
Thyroid hormone levels may be within normal limits, although in some cases TSH levels are outside normal limits. This indicates that the pituitary gland is trying to compensate the phenomenon by working hard (producing more TSH) or working less (producing less TSH) and making it possible to detect the disease before it starts to give symptoms.
Other Tests Thyroid gland ultrasound, thyroid gland scintigraphy, sampling from the thyroid gland (aspiration biopsy) and some other methods are especially suspected cases of mass in the thyroid gland. You can find out the details of these tests on the sites which contain information on the Internal Medicine-Endocrinology branch.
