[A Somali man with a painful thyroid mass: thyroid tuberculosis].
A 21-year-old man from Somalia presented with a painful mass in the thyroid, 6 months offatigue, weight loss and fever. Two separate courses of antibiotics did not improve his condition. Thyroid function tests were normal. The chest X-ray showed an enlarged hilus with some pulmonary infiltration around it. The diagnosis ofthyroid tuberculosis was established by cytological, microbiological and PCR testing of a fine needle aspirate of a thyroid lymph node. Treatment with antituberculosis agents resulted in a complete clinical response. The differential diagnosis of a painful thyroid mass encompasses subacute granulomatous thyroiditis, infectious thyroiditis, radiation- or trauma-induced thyroiditis and haemorrhage in the thyroid lymph nodes. Although thyroid tuberculosis is mainly a disease of developing countries, increasing immigration can lead to a higher incidence of this rare form of extrapulmonary tuberculosis and should therefore also be considered in patients with a painful thyroid mass.
Borggreve
H F
HF
Medisch Centrum Leeuwarden, afd. Inwendige Geneeskunde, Postbus 888, 8901 BR Leeuwarden. hella.borggreve@znb.nl
Kiers
A
A
de Heide
L J M
LJ
D000328:Adult; D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012998:Somalia; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014383:Tuberculosis, Endocrine / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology
D000995:Antitubercular Agents