How does a doctor approach your thyroid problem?

A simple approach would be to view a patient with thyroid problem from three angles - functional, structural and aetiological (Fig.2). By functional, we mean the functional status of the thyroid gland, i.e., whether the gland is producing normal (euthyroidism), less (hypothyroidism) or more (hyperthyroidism) thyroid hormone. Clinical manifestation of excess circulating thyroid hormone is called thyrotoxicosis and if this excess thyroid hormone comes from thyroid gland, we tell this hyperthyroidism. In routine clinical practice these two terms are used interchangeably.

Fig - 2	Functional- Euthyroid, Hyperthyroid, Hypothyroid
	Structural- Euthyroid, Hyperthyroid, Hypothyroid
	Aetiological- Benign, Cancer, auto-immune, deficiency, etc.

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