Thyroid nodules are being increasingly detected during thyroid evaluations or incidentally during ultrasound examinations for other clinical purposes or screening programs, thus leading to potential over diagnosis and over treatment. Therefore, the present thyroid nodule epidemic represents a challenge for clinical management, since the vast majority of identified nodules end up being diagnosed as benign. The clinical practice guidelines limit the number of nodules to be submitted to fine-needle aspiration cytology, and selection no longer relies upon size and growth pattern.

Article published online:
04 December 2023

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