title: Clinical profile of ectopic thyroid in Asian Indians: a single-center experience.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess clinical characteristics of patients with ectopic thyroid seen at a single tertiary care center in India.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this case series, we retrospectively reviewed the data of patients who presented with ectopic thyroid between January 1995 and March 2008. Clinical presentation, nuclear imaging findings, endocrine profile, and clinical management were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Records of 22 female patients and 14 male patients were reviewed. Ectopic thyroid was more common in female patients. Mean age of presentation was 14.3 years (median, 14 years; range, 5 months to 40 years). Seventeen patients (47%) presented with lingual thyroid, detected incidentally or because of dysphagia and bleeding while eating, and 19 patients (53%) had sublingual thyroid, which mainly presented as an anterior neck swelling. Thirty patients (83%) had hypothyroidism (overt or subclinical). In 29 patients (81%), ectopic thyroid either in the neck or in the lingual area was the only functional thyroid tissue. Thirty-one patients (86%) were treated medically, and surgery was performed in only 5 patients (14%) who had either recurrent bleeding or dysphagia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ectopic thyroid should be considered during the evaluation of a midline neck mass or hypothyroidism. Careful clinical examination, thyroid function tests, and radionuclide imaging help establish the diagnosis and localize ectopic thyroid. Appropriate treatment should be decided on an individual basis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai, India. drrajugopal@gmail.com
authors.forename: Raju A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Gopal
authors.forename: Shrikrishna V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Acharya
authors.forename: Tushar
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bandgar
authors.forename: Padma S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Menon
authors.forename: Hetal
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Marfatia
authors.forename: Nalini S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Shah
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002828:Choristoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D046151:Lingual Thyroid / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000002:abnormalities*; D055815:Young Adult