Development and Evaluation of the Feasibility of Thyroid Gland Self-Examination in an Outpatient Clinic

Development and Evaluation of the Feasibility of Thyroid Gland Self-Examination in an Outpatient Clinic

Purpose: Most thyroid nodules are not associated with symptoms, even if they are thyroid carcinomas. However, the thyroid gland is located superficially in the neck, and is therefore easy to palpate with the appropriate training. We aimed to develop and evaluate the feasibility of a method of self-examination of the thyroid gland for the detection of nodules. Methods: Between August 2014 and February 2015, 554 patients with thyroid nodules visited the outpatient clinic of the Thyroid Cancer Center, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. The patients were trained to palpate their nodules using a brochure and the results were compared with those of examinations by a physician. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of thyroid self-examination were 66.3% and 81.7%; and the positive and negative predictive values were 80.7% and 67.7%, respectively. The false positive rate was 18.3%. After the patients had been trained, the thyroid nodule detection rate increased from 66.3% to 88.4%. Conclusion: Thyroid self-examination was found to be easy to learn and represents a feasible method of screening for thyroid nodules in an outpatient setting.