title: Thyroid incidentalomas. Prevalence, diagnosis, significance, and management.
abstract: Thyroid incidentalomas are common, always impalpable, often less than 1.5 cm in size, and frequently benign. The authors recommend that low-risk patients with incidentalomas be followed up with clinical palpation in 6 to 12 months and not be subjected to routine testing with US-FNA. In the authors' strategy, fine-needle aspiration is reserved for an impalpable nodule and is performed under ultrasonographic guidance in the high-risk group of patients in whom either the imaging features or the clinical history is worrisome for malignancy. It does not seem necessary, practical, or cost-effective to perform biopsy or to excise surgically all impalpable nodules. Because of the high prevalence of thyroid incidentalomas, most of which are benign, a nonsurgical approach is logical.
authors.affiliation: Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, Mayo Medical School, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Burguera
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gharib
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010173:Palpation; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy