Goiter in an eighteenth-century Sicilian mummy.
Goiter is still a frequent pathological condition of the thyroid gland. Goiter consists of an enlargement of the gland caused by several physiopathologic events, the most important of which is deficient intake of iodine. A series of eighteenth-century mummies housed in the church of Santa Maria della Grazia in Comiso includes one individual showing a pathological condition, with a very large swelling in the antero-inferior region of the neck. X-rays showed small scattered radiopaque foci. Routine histology showed a large number of circular follicles immersed in fibrous tissue. Finally, immunohistochemistry revealed a strong reactivity for thyroglobulin. The data confirmed the nature of the tissue as thyroid, and the macroscopic diagnosis is that of thyroid goiter.
Ciranni
R
R
Department of Oncology, University of Pisa, Italy. r.ciranni@do.med.unipi.it
Castagna
M
M
Fornaciari
G
G
D006042:Goiter / Q000266:history* / Q000473:pathology; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009106:Mummies; D012802:Sicily