What is diffuse thyroid enlargement and what causes it?

Diffuse thyroid enlargement is a common disease in today's life. It is a multi-system syndrome with many classifications. This disease will cause great harm to the patient's body after the onset. Let's understand the cause of the disease together.

What is diffuse thyroid enlargement?

Diffuse thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease. Its clinical manifestations are not limited to the thyroid gland, but a multisystem syndrome, including: hypermetabolic syndrome, diffuse thyroiditis, eye signs, skin lesions and thyroid acromegaly. In most cases, thyroiditis refers to thyroid enlargement that is not caused by tumor alone. Therefore, the lesions caused by various causes occur throughout the thyroid gland, so the description of "diffuse thyroid lesions" is often seen. This "lesion" does not mean "malignant lesions", but is only described as a simple diffuse thyroid lesion, which has nothing to do with tumors. In addition to medical history and physical examination, ultrasound examination of the thyroid gland and further analysis and evaluation of the cause of enlargement are also essential.

Causes of diffuse thyroid enlargement

◇Genetic factors

Genetic factors are the cause of the disease recognized by most people, indicating that Graves' disease is closely related to genetic genes. Cases of successive onset of the disease are often seen in a family, and most of them are women. About 15% of patients have obvious genetic factors of Graves. About half of the relatives of patients have thyroid autoantibodies in their blood. The occurrence of hyperthyroidism is significantly related to human leukocyte antigen (HLA class II antigen), and its detection rate varies with different races. Chinese people are significantly related to HLA-H46. In addition to HLA genes, there are also non-HLA genes.

◇Mental trauma

Excessive mental excitement or excessive depression caused by various reasons can lead to excessive secretion of thyroid hormone. The mechanism may be that the secretion of adrenal cortex hormone increases sharply under high stress, thereby changing the function of suppressor T lymphocytes (Ts) or helper T lymphocytes (Th) and enhancing the immune response.

◇Immune system abnormalities

T lymphocytes react to antigens in the thyroid gland, stimulating B lymphocytes to synthesize antibodies against these antigens. T cells play an important role in hyperthyroidism.