Table 1.
Characteristics of the 5 cohort studies included in qualitative and quantitative analysis
| Authors | Year | Country | Sample Size | Mean Age | Retrospective/ Prospective | Diagnosis method | Radiotracer | Inclusion of microcarcinomas (%) | Carcinoma localized to hot nodule | Hot nodule – Hyperthyroida (%) | Hot nodule – Euthyroida (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baser, H., et al. [22] | 2019 | Turkey | 509 | 54.6 | Retrospective | FNAB/Histology | Tc99m | Yes (?) | No | Unknown | Unknown |
| Corrias, A., et al. [23] | 2010 | Italy | 120 | 11.5 | Retrospective | FNAB(104) /Histology (63) | Tc99m | No | Yes | 67 | 33 |
| Derosa, G., et al. [24] | 1994 | Italy | 619 | 46.0 | Retrospective | FNAB/Histology | Tc99m | No | No | 100 | 0 |
| Dirikoc, A., et al. [25] | 2017 | Turkey | 2870 | 49.0 | Retrospective | Histology | Tc99m/131I | Yes (75.1%) | No | 100 | 0 |
| Mon, S. Y., et al. [9] | 2018 | USA | 703 | 48.6 | Prospective | FNAB | Iodine | Yes (9.5%) | No | 67 | 33 |
| Slijepcevic, N., et al. [26] | 2015 | Serbia | 2466 | 54.0 | Retrospective | Histology | Unknown | Yes (100%) | No | Unknown | Unknown |
| Tam, A., et al. [27] | 2019 | Turkey | 439 | 46.0 | Retrospective | FNAB/Histology | Tc99m | Yes (?) | Yes | Unknown | Unknown |
aHyperthyroid defined as suppressed TSH, and euthyroid defined as normal TSH