Incidence of thyroid disorders in the second decade of adequate iodine supply in Slovenia.

Abstract

The incidence of thyroid disorders importantly depends on iodine supply and may change over time. There are only afew data available regarding the change in the incidence of thyroid disorders following the increase in iodine supply. Therefore, the aim of this study was to establish the incidence of thyroid disorders in the second decade of adequate iodine supply in Slovenia. The medical records of 17,828 adult patients who were examined at this department for the first time in the years 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 were reviewed. The incidence of diffuse and nodular goiter, thyroid autonomy, Graves' disease, non-hypothyroid and hypothyroid Hashimoto's thyroiditis in the stable catchment area of the University Medical Centre Ljubljana with 1,000,000 inhabitants was followed. Asignificantly lower incidence of thyroid autonomy was observed in the year 2014 as compared to 2011 (p = 0.006), asignificantly higher incidence of Hashimoto's thyroiditis in 2014 as compared to 2013 (p = 0.003), and asignificantly higher incidence of non-hypothyroid Hashimoto's thyroiditis in 2014 as compared to 2011 and 2013 (p = 0.005 and p = 0.022, respectively). The incidence of other thyroid diseases did not change significantly in the observed period. In the second decade of adequate iodine supply in Slovenia, we established asimilar or even alower incidence of most thyroid diseases in the observed 4 years with the exception of Hashimoto's thyroiditis.