[Differential diagnosis of goiter using thin-needle biopsy-- differences between the pediatric and adult population]

The authors give an account of their experience with needle biopsy of the thyroid gland and differences in the frequency of different findings in the thyroid gland of adults and children. From the total number of 2260 punctures in adults and 274 punctures in children and adolescents they found in adults most frequently tissue without marked pathological changes (so-called standard finding), in 46%. In children the most frequent finding was lymphocytic thyroiditis, in 44.8%, in adults in 13%. Carcinomas were diagnosed in adults in 7.3% and in 1.8% children (= in 5 children). In four adolescents aged 19-23 years who observed a resistance in the thyroid gland at least from the age of 18 onwards and in a 22-year-old girl who had irradiation therapy on account of a Hodgkin lymphoma at the age of 19 years a thyroid carcinoma was diagnosed. The authors discuss also other less frequent thyroid findings. They draw attention to the diagnostic value of thyroid thin-needle puncture and consider this examination an essential diagnostic procedure in all obscure resistances in the thyroid area not only in adults but also in children.