Anatomical Variations of Thyroid Glands in Northeastern-Thai Embalmed Cadavers/ Variaciones Anatomicas de la Glandula Tiroides en Cadaveres Embalsamados del Noreste de Tailandia

This study aimed to investigate the variation patterns of thyroid glands in embalmed cadavers donated for anatomical studying and research in the northeastern part of Thailand. The crossed-sectional descriptive study was applied to systemically observe the thyroid gland in abnormality of 45 embalmed cadavers. The study was conducted in the Anatomy Laboratory of College of Medicine and Public Health, Ubon Ratchathani University. The indications of thyroid gland abnormalities were recorded by photographs before classification of data used further in a descriptive analysis using SPSS. The results showed that 8 of the 45 cadavers (17.8 %) were observed with thyroid gland abnormality (4 males; 8.9 % and 4 females; 8.9 %). Such variations could be classified into 3 types; pyramidal lobe (8.8 %), levator glandulae thyroideae (2.2 %) and the co-existing of levator glandulae thyroideae (8.8 %), respectively. The thyroid gland abnormality observed in this study was mainly related to many previous reports. Besides the number of thyroid variations are a crucial indication of thyroid gland abnormality recurring, these gland abnormalities are susceptible to the operation of radiology physicians in thyroidectomy and tracheostomy. KEY WORDS: Anatomical variations; Thyroid gland; Pyramidal lobe; Levator glandulae thyroideae. RESUMEN: El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar los patrones de variacion de la glandula tiroides en cadaveres embalsamados donados para estudios e investigaciones anatomicas en el noreste de Tailandia. El estudio transversal descriptivo se aplico para observar sistemicamente la glandula tiroides en caso de anomalia en 45 cadaveres embalsamados. El estudio se realizo en el Laboratorio de Anatomia de la Facultad de Medicina y Salud Publica de la Universidad de Ubon Ratchathani. Las anomalias de la glandula tiroides se registraron mediante fotografias antes de la clasificacion de los datos y se utilizaron en un analisis descriptivo con SPSS. Los resultados mostraron que en 8 de los 45 cadaveres (17,8 %) se observaron anomalias de la glandula tiroides (4 hombres; 8,9 % y 4 mujeres; 8,9 %). Tales variaciones podrian ser clasificadas en 3 tipos: lobulo piramidal (8,8 %), musculo elevador de la glandula tiroides (2,2 %) y la coexistencia del musculo elevador de la glandula tiroides (8,8 %), respectivamente. La anomalia de la glandula tiroides observada en este estudio se relaciono principalmente con informes anteriores. Ademas, la cantidad de variaciones