Lingual thyroid is the most common form of thyroid ectopia, resulting from failure of normal caudal migration of the thyroid anlage during embryogenesis.1 Diagnosis relies on cross-sectional imaging to define anatomy and radionuclide scintigraphy as the gold standard to verify functional thyroid tissue and exclude normally located gland.2
The images depict the clinical, radiological, and scintigraphic findings of a 27-year-old woman with ectopic lingual thyroid. Clinical photograph showed a smooth, reddish, round mass at the tongue base (Figure 1). Contrast-enhanced CT in sagittal and axial views demonstrated an enhancing lesion at the posterior tongue with the absence of orthotopic thyroid tissue in the pretracheal area (Figure 2). Tc-99m pertechnetate scintigraphy showed focal tracer uptake in the lingual region (Figure 3), confirming the diagnosis of ectopic thyroid tissue.
Figure 1.
Examination of the tongue revealed a small, smooth, reddish mass located at the base of the tongue.
Figure 2.
Contrast-enhanced multislice computed tomography (MSCT) of the neck demonstrated an ectopic thyroid gland at the base of the posterior tongue, shown in (A) sagittal and (B) axial views.
Figure 3.
Thyroid scan with technetium-99m showing a round, focal area of radiotracer uptake in the lingual projection. (A) Focal area of increased radiotracer uptake in the midline at the base of the tongue (orange arrow). (B) Focal radiotracer uptake in the lingual region (orange arrow), suggestive of a lingual thyroid. (C) Confirmatory view demonstrating localized uptake at the base of the tongue (orange arrow).
Funding Statement
Funding Source None.
Ethical Consideration
Patient consent forms were obtained before manuscript submission.
Statement of Authorship
Both authors certified fulfillment of ICMJE authorship criteria.
CRediT Author Statement
RR: Conceptualization, Data curation, Visualization, Writing – original draft preparation, Writing – review and editing. DT: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing – review and editing.
Data Availability Statement
No datasets were generated or analyzed for this study.
Author Disclosure
Both authors declared no conflict of interest.
References
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Associated Data
This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.
Data Availability Statement
No datasets were generated or analyzed for this study.