A postmortem study on the volume of the human thyroid gland.

The present study was designed to find out the difference in volume of the thyroid gland of Bangladeshi people in relation to age and sex and to compare with previous local and foreign studies. It was a Cross-sectional descriptive type of study. The hospital based study was conducted in the Department of Anatomy, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka, from January to December 2008. The present study was performed on 60 post mortem human thyroid gland (39 of male and 21 of female) collected from unclaimed dead bodies which were in the morgue under examination in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka. The samples were divided into three age-groups including group A (10-20 years), group B (21-50 years) & group C (>50 years) and the volume of the thyroid glands were measured by fluid displacement method and recorded. No difference was found in mean volume of the thyroid gland between male and female. However, significant difference was found in between age groups. The volume of the gland was found to increase from early childhood and puberty up to 50 years of age and then decreased.