栗田 武彰¹, 遠藤 正章², 羽田 隆吉², 加藤 智¹

Takeaki KURITA¹, Masaaki ENDOH², Ryukichi HADA², Satoru KATOH¹

¹木造成人病センター外科, ²弘前大学医学部第2外科

¹Department of Surgery, Kizukuri Adult Disease Center Hospital, ²The Second Department of Surgery, Hirosaki University School of Medicine

キーワード : Thyroid echo level, Thyroid thickness

To evaluate the influence of neck position on values obtained for thyroid echo levels and other related parameters, measurments were tried first in a natural supine position and then in an hyperextended neck position in 37 thyroid disease free females (mean age: 32.7 years). Extension of the neck with an imaginary line connecting the external auditory meatus and the tip of the chin to be precisely rectangular to the recumbent plane, was obtained by placing a hard pillow underneath the scaplae of each subject.
The thickness of the thyroid decreased from 14.7±2.0 to 11.5±1.7 mm with a decremental ratio of 21.0%, whereas the echo level increased from 98.2±7.1 to 111.4±6.7 with an increase of 13.3%. The thickness of the prethyroid tissues also changed from 5.5±1.1 to 3.9±0.8 mm with a decrease of 28.7%. As the changes observed were all significant (p