Differences between mean values (MSEM) of Ag, Co, Cr, Fe, Hg, Rb, Sb, Sc, Se, and Zn mass fraction (mg/kg, dry mass basis) in thyroid benign (TBN) and malignant (TMN) nodules..

Table 2: Differences between mean values (MSEM) of Ag, Co, Cr, Fe, Hg, Rb, Sb, Sc, Se, and Zn mass fraction (mg/kg, dry mass basis) in thyroid benign (TBN) and malignant (TMN) nodules.

Element	Thyroid nodules				Ratio
Element	TBN	TMN	Student’s t-test, p £	U-test, p	TMN / TBN
Ag	0.226 ± 0.031	0.193 ± 0.041	0.515	> 0.05	0.85
Co	0.0615 ± 0.0046	0.0550 ± 0.0060	0.37	> 0.05	0.89
Cr	0.966 ± 0.121	0.835 ± 0.157	0.511	> 0.05	0.86
Fe	332 ± 40	248 ± 28	0.094	> 0.05	0.75
Hg	0.924 ± 0.088	0.824 ± 0.149	0.567	> 0.05	0.89
I	992 ± 103	71.8 ± 10.0	0.00000001	≤ 0.01	0.072
Rb	9.55 ± 0.52	12.8 ± 0.8	0.00098	≤ 0.01	1.34
Sb	0.137 ± 0.016	0.124 ± 0.015	0.572	> 0.05	0.91
Sc	0.0144 ± 0.0030	0.0077 ± 0.0020	0.105	> 0.05	0.53
Se	2.75 ± 0.29	2.04 ± 0.18	0.039	≤ 0.01	0.74
Zn	117.7 ± 5.9	95.1 ± 5.9	0.111	> 0.05	0.81

M - Arithmetic mean, SEM - Standard error of mean, statistically significant values are in bold.