title: Parathyroid and thyroid imaging.
abstract: Whether to perform preoperative imaging for parathyroid adenomas is controversial in the "virgin neck" because surgery without imaging is successful in more than 90% of cases. To detect ectopic adenomas or unresected adenomas after failure of initial surgery often requires both a functional study, such as technetium-99m sestamibi nuclear scintigram, and a morphologic study, such as ultrasonography, computed tomography, or magnetic resonance imaging for anatomic landmarks. Most dominant thyroid masses require fine-needle aspiration for diagnosis. Nuclear scintigraphy is useful when the lesion is warm or hot, making a malignancy less likely, but cold lesions are nonspecific. Unless a mass is shown to infiltrate the surrounding soft tissue or spread to lymph nodes, the findings on most cross-sectional imaging studies are also nonspecific.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, USA.
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Yousem
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D010279:Parathyroid Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D010280:Parathyroid Glands / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014463:Ultrasonography