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Evaluation of peripheral olfactory pathways in chronic autoimmune thyroiditis

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Abstract

Purpose

In this study, we aimed to radiologically evaluate the olfactory bulb (OB) volume and olfactory sulcus (OS) depth of adult patients diagnosed with chronic autoimmune thyroiditis.

Methods

Sixty-eight patients over 18 years of age with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and 66 healthy controls with normal thyroid function tests were included in the study. OB volume and OS depth measurements were performed using cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) obtained from coronal T2-weighted images. The relationship between thyroid function tests, autoantibodies, and measurements of the OB and OS were evaluated.

Results

The right and left OB volumes were significantly lower in the patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis than in the control group (p < 0.05). No significant difference was found between the patient and control groups in terms of OS depth (p > 0.05). There were significantly negative correlations among TSH, thyroid antibodies, and the bilateral OB volume measurements. In the Bonferroni post hoc analysis, when people with euthyroid Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and the control group were compared, there was no statistically significant difference between bilateral OB volumes and thyroid function tests.

Conclusion

Diminished bilateral OB volumes were found in our patients with chronic autoimmune thyroiditis. Interestingly, the OB volumes were not affected in patients with euthyroid Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. When a decrease in OB volume is detected on MRI, it should be kept in mind that odor dysfunction in hypothyroid patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis may occur and patients should be clinically evaluated.

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Funding

There are no financial disclosures of the authors. There are no funds for this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Radiology Department, Kirikkale University, Kirikkale, Turkey

    Mikail Inal

  2. Radiology Department, Medipol University Esenler Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

    Neşe Asal

  3. Faculty of Medicine, İnternal Medicine Department, Kirikkale University, Kirikkale, Turkey

    Irfan Karahan

  4. Faculty of Medicine, Endocrinology Department, Kirikkale University, Kirikkale, Turkey

    Aşkın Güngüneş & Şenay Arıkan Durmaz

Authors
  1. Mikail Inal
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  2. Neşe Asal
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  3. Irfan Karahan
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  4. Aşkın Güngüneş
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  5. Şenay Arıkan Durmaz
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Contributions

Guarantor of integrity of the entire study: Mikail Inal. Study concepts and design: MI, ŞAD, AG. Literature research: MI, ŞAD. Clinical studies: ŞAD, AG. Experimental studies/data analysis: NA, MI. Statistical analysis: IK. Manuscript preparation: MI, ŞAD. Manuscript editing: MI, ŞAD.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mikail Inal.

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Conflict of interest

The author’s declare that they have no conlict of interest.

Ethical approval

This study is retrospective. Ethics committee approval was obtained from Kirikkale University Non-invasive Research Ethics Committee (date: 18/09/2019 issue: 2019/15).

Informed consent

There is no need to take informed consent, because the data were evaluated retrospectively.

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Inal, M., Asal, N., Karahan, I. et al. Evaluation of peripheral olfactory pathways in chronic autoimmune thyroiditis. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 279, 4525–4532 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-022-07373-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-022-07373-z

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