Table 5.
Characteristics of the subgroup of lithium-treated patients with goiter and parenchymal abnormalities and comparison with the remaining lithium-treated patients
| Goiter | Parenchymal Structure | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| + (N=40) | − (N=44) | Abnormal (N=19) | Normal (N=65) | |||||||
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Statistics | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Statistics | |
| Age (years) | 42.0 | 11.7 | 44.1 | 11.2 | t=0.854 p=0.396 | 44.2 | 13.2 | 42.8 | 11.0 | t=−0.448 p=0.655 |
| Age of onset of lithium treatment (years) | 28.7 | 9.6 | 32.8 | 9.8 | t=1.900 p=0.061 | 31.6 | 10.6 | 30.6 | 9.7 | t=−0.373 p=0.710 |
| Duration of lithium treatment (months) | 146.1 | 97.8 | 133.4 | 101.8 | t=−0.579 p=0.564 | 144.0 | 107.5 | 138.1 | 97.9 | t=−0.226 p=0.821 |
| Serum lithium level (mEq/L) | 0.69 | 0.12 | 0.70 | 0.14 | t=0.430 p=0.669 | 0.72 | 0.14 | 0.69 | 0.13 | t=−0.602 p=0.532 |
| N | % | N | % | Fisher exact test (one sided) | N | % | N | % | Fisher exact test (one sided) | |
| Female gender | 19 | 47.5 | 26 | 59.1 | p=0.199 | 12 | 63.2 | 33 | 50.8 | p=0.246 |
| Familial thyroid disease | 14 | 35.0 | 15 | 34.1 | p=0.556 | 9 | 47.4 | 20 | 41.5 | p=0.144 |
| Smoking | 16 | 40.0 | 19 | 43.2 | p=0.471 | 8 | 22.9 | 27 | 41.5 | p=0.584 |
| Autoimmunity | 6 | 15.0 | 7 | 15.9 | p=0.575 | 7 | 36.8 | 6 | 9.2 | p=0.008 |
| Thyroid dysfunction | 4 | 10.0 | 18 | 40.9 | p=0.001 | 12 | 63.2 | 10 | 15.4 | p<0.0001 |
N: number; SD: standard deviation