Background and Objectives: This
study aimed to analyze the relationship between thyroid volume (TVOL) and
physical development of children, and explore the suitable TVOL correction
methods. Methods and Study Design: 1500
children aged 8-10 years from Gansu Province northwest China were selected. The
height (H), weight (W), urine iodine of children was measured and their thyroid
was examined by ultrasound. Body mass index (BMI), body surface area (BSA) and
TVOL were calculated (BSA was calculated by three formulas), and the
relationship between TVOL and age, sex, physical development was analyzed. The
applicability of TVOL correction methods including BMI corrected volume (BMIV),
BSA corrected volume (BSAV), weight and height corrected volume indicator
(WHVI) and height corrected volume indicator (HVI) were compared.
Results: Median urinary iodine
concentrations of children aged 8, 9, 10 years were 166.6 μg/L, 167.2 μg/L and
178.8 μg/L respectively. The rate of iodine deficiency was 20.3%, the rate of
thyroid goiter was 3.2%. The physical development indexes (height, weight, BMI
and BSA) and TVOL increased with age. The physical development indexes (height,
weight, BMI and BSA) of boys were higher than girls (p <0.05). Only
BSAV1 had no correlation with all physical development indexes (p
>0.05). The TVOL P97 (97th percentile) of children aged 8, 9, 10 years were
4.4 ml, 4.9 ml, 6.5 ml, the values were 4.6 mL, 4.7 mL, 5.9 mL after BSAV1
corrected. The difference between TVOL and BSAV1 ranges from -0.37% to 0.36%. Conclusions: The
thyroid volume is not only affected by age, but it is also affected by physical
development. Thyroid goiter should be assessed based on age and physical
development. The formula BSAV1=TVOL/ (W0.425×H0.725×71.84×10-4)
was a suitable TVOL correction method.