Morphometric investigation of the human thyroid gland. With special reference to the methods and to nontoxic goiter

A study was carried out to (1) evaluate methods for the quantitative morphologic description of the human thyroid gland and (2) investigate the relationship between the morphology and the functional state of the gland in patients with nontoxic goiter. Analysis of sampling variance showed a high contribution of biologic variation between individuals, a low contribution from the variance within individuals and a negligible contribution from the stereologic procedure itself to the overall variation. The optimal numbers of sections per gland and fields of vision were found to be 2 and 17, respectively. The only constant relationship between the morphology and the functional state, either before or after resection, was a positive correlation between the epithelial cell volume left behind and the se-"free" thyroxine index 12 months postoperatively. It is concluded that quantitative morphologic description of the human thyroid gland is possible without being too time-consuming but that the value of such investigations is clinically doubtful in cases of nontoxic goiter.