THYROID GLAND: A CLINICAL PATHOLOGIC STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO TRUE TUMOR

Abstract

In spite of the voluminous literature and of present knowledge based on extensive experimental studies of certain morbid changes occurring in diseases of the thyroid gland, there still exist, perhaps as in no other field of human pathology, the greatest differences of opinion and the most widespread confusion. Much of the existing divergence and antagonism in views, however, as well as the conflicting interpretations of the thyroid gland both in health and in disease, undoubtedly can be attributed to incomplete knowledge of the structure and physiology of the gland and to its many physiologic and histologic variations and irregularities. This appears to be particularly true as regards the pathologic significance of benign nodules or tumefactions of the thyroid gland and their relation to states of hyperactivity of the gland. Such tumors or nodules occurring in cases of nodular goiter were for many years considered distinct pathologic entities and were often