Tuberculosis of Thyroid Gland - A Rare Case Report

Siddesh G Girish Tu

doi:10.4172/2167-7948.1000103

Abstract

Tuberculosis of thyroid gland is a very rare condition even though the incidence of extra pulmonary forms of tuberculosis is increasing. According to literature, frequency of thyroid tuberculosis is 0.1%–0.4%. We report a case of 66year old female patient with primary tuberculosis of thyroid gland. The diagnosis was established on histopathological examination after surgery. Patient underwent combination treatment with anti-tubercular chemotherapy

Highlights

Tuberculosis of thyroid is extremely a rare clinical entity
Rankin and Graham found thyroid gland tuberculosis in 21 of 20758 (0.1%) cases of thyroid gland excision
Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of thyroid nodule - reported as follicular neoplasm and from the cervical lymph nodes as nonspecific lymphadenitis

Summary

Introduction

Tuberculosis of thyroid is extremely a rare clinical entity. A very few cases are reported from India, despite a high incidence of tuberculosis. There are approximately 200 cases of tuberculosis of thyroid reported throughout medical literature [2]. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of thyroid nodule - reported as follicular neoplasm and from the cervical lymph nodes as nonspecific lymphadenitis. Patient underwent right hemithyroidectomy with preservation of parathyroids and excision biopsy of lymph nodes. Histopathology report of specimen was suggestive of follicular adenoma with tuberculous thyroiditis (Figure 2 and Figure 3), and surprisingly, lymph nodes were negative for tuberculosis. Patient had uneventful postoperative course except for seroma, which was treated by aspiration. She was started on anti-tubercular chemotherapy for 6 months. No signs or symptoms of localized or systemic tuberculosis

Discussion

Findings

Conclusion