High prevalence of parvovirus B19 infection in patients with thyroid nodules: A case-control study

The incidence of thyroid nodules has increased dramatically in recent decades. Although this increase has been attributed to improved imaging modalities, the question arises as to whether other environmental factors, such as infectious agents are influential.

Adult patients with newly diagnosed papillary thyroid carcinoma, benign thyroid nodules, and healthy euthyroid controls without nodules; were recruited. Various clinical and biochemical parameters including thyroid function tests and serum Parvovirus B19 Ab (IgG) were assessed and compared between groups.

In this study, data from 364 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma, 370 patients with benign thyroid nodules, and 360 healthy euthyroid individuals without nodules were analyzed as a control group. The prevalence of parvovirus B19 infection in papillary thyroid carcinoma patients was 58.8% that was significantly higher than the two groups of benign thyroid nodules (49.2%) and the control group (45.0%). In the papillary thyroid carcinoma group, a significant positive correlation was found between tumor size and TSH (r = 0.129, p = 0.014), and between tumor size and B19-Ab (r = 0.176, p = 0.001).

The rate of parvovirus B19 infection was higher in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma and benign thyroid nodules than in the control group. Also, patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma had significantly higher rates of B19 infection than those with benign thyroid nodules.