Consider metastatic disease to the thyroid in patients with history of cancer

March 1, 2010

A 58-year-old Vietnamese man with stage IV non–small cell lung cancer, which was diagnosed in 2007, presented to the ED with several days of hoarseness and worsening dysphagia for solid foo...

How I perform ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy

September 9, 2009

I am occasionally asked about my technique for performing ultrasound-guided fine-needle biopsy. Last year alone, I performed over 500 diagnostic ultrasounds or ultrasound-guided fine-needle biop...

Ultrasound revealed thyroid cyst with shifting contents

September 1, 2009

A 63-year-old Asian woman was referred for the evaluation of a partially cystic left thyroid nodule. A thyroid mass was found during a routine annual physical exam. The primary care physician or...

Cyst with ‘colloid comets’ in the thyroid not derived from thyroid epithelium

July 1, 2009

A 38-year-old male with a history of factor XI deficiency hemophilia with severe acquired circulating anticoagulant to factor IX and psoriasis was referred for an abnormal thyroid gland discover...

When a ‘hot’ nodule is not a toxic thyroid adenoma

June 1, 2009

A 43-year-old woman presented to an endocrine clinic for the evaluation of an enlarging goiter. The patient had complained of an enlarging neck over the prior 12 months with no compressive sympt...

Lymph node ultrasound before thyroidectomy

April 21, 2009

A woman was sent to me for ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy of a thyroid nodule. As is my usual practice prior to the biopsy, I performed detailed ultrasound evaluation for cervic...

Radioactive iodine imaging in the evaluation of thyroid nodules

March 23, 2009

Radioactive iodine imaging has been used extensively in the past for the evaluation of thyroid nodular disease. However, with the widespread use of thyroid ultrasonography and ultrasound-guided fine-n...

Which nodules should be biopsied in a multinodular goiter?

October 20, 2008

I saw a 46-year-old woman for second opinion regarding a multinodular goiter. She had several nodules over 1 cm in size. A dominant left-sided 2.2-cm heterogeneous nodule was biopsied by fine needle a...

Diagnostic dilemma: Papillary thyroid carcinoma and multiple pulmonary nodules

April 10, 2008

A 60-year-old woman was referred for the evaluation of a goiter. She had noticed slow growth of her thyroid for the past 40 years, and it was now causing a globus sensation when she swallowed and mild...

Thyroid nodule or parathyroid adenoma?

March 10, 2008

A 48-year-old woman presented with a history of passing a renal stone of unknown composition. Testing revealed a calcium 10.2 mg/dL (reference range: 8.5-10.4), albumin 4 mg/dL, 25 hydroxy Vitamin D 2...