[Medical treatment of multinodular goiter].

Thyroid nodules are among the most common clinical problems in endocrinology. Among several factors responsible for the development of goiter, circulating TSH plays a major role because of its direct growth-promoting effects on the thyroid cells; moreover TSH may enhance the effects of other local growth factors which act in a paracrine mode in the thyroid gland. In addition, autoimmune thyroiditis can clinically appear as thyroid nodules frequently with the functional aspect of a subclinical hypothyroidism. For these reasons a therapeutical approach based on the thyroxine suppression of TSH secretion has become largely used by 1970s and is correctly employed in 75% of the patients with thyroid nodules whose biopsies result benign.