An Occupational Study in Nurses: Prevalence of Thyroid Nodules and Cancer in Comparison to Health Check-up Female.

OBJECTIVES: It is known that a great extent of radiation is emitted from the medical instruments used in hospitals and that radiation exposure can cause thyroid cancer. However, the correlation between occupational radiation exposure in hospitals and thyroid disease is not extensively recognized.

METHODS: The subjects of the study were female nurses, who worked at a single hospital and female, who had undergone a health examination at the same hospital during the same period. The 1,024 nurses and 2,631 healthy women were enrolled for the present study. All the participants were screened using thyroid ultrasonography, and fine-needle aspiration & cytology was performed on potentially malignant nodules.

RESULTS: Thyroid nodules were present in 315 nurses (30.8%) and 1,023 health check-up female (38.9%). Typically, 107 nurses (10.4%) and 201 health check-up female (7.6%) had suspicious nodule and were further tested with ultrasonography guided fine-needle aspiration & cytology. The 16 nurses (1.6%) and 38 health check-up female (1.4%) were diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The prevalence of thyroid nodules was enhanced in both the groups and a significant increase was noted in health check-up female group (P<0.05); however, no difference was seen in the incidence of thyroid cancer in both the groups (P>0.05).

CONCLUSION: In our study, working in a hospital does not increase the prevalence of thyroid nodules or thyroid cancer.