The use of endobronchial ultrasonography with transbronchial needle aspiration to sample a solitary substernal thyroid nodule.
Solitary thyroid nodules (STNs) are frequently encountered in clinical practice. When sampling of an STN is deemed necessary, ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy (US-FNAB) is the procedure of choice. In substernal STNs, US-FNAB is not feasible, and the patients are usually offered either more invasive diagnostic testing (mediastinoscopy or surgical excision) or follow-up imaging studies based on the clinical suspicion of malignancy. We report a case in which a substernal STN was sampled using endobronchial ultrasonography with transbronchial fine needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA). Our patient is a 74-year-old woman who was admitted with an asthma exacerbation. She underwent a chest CT scan with intravenous contrast (CTA) to rule out pulmonary embolism (PE). The CTA was negative for PE but showed a substernal STN that was successfully sampled by EBUS-TBNA without complications. The cytology was consistent with a colloid adenoma. EBUS-TBNA can sample substernal STNs that are not amenable to US-FNAB.
Staten Island Pulmonary Associates, 501 Seaview Ave, Ste 102, Staten Island, NY 10305, USA. chalhoubmichel@gmail.com
Michel
M
Chalhoub
Kassem
K
Harris
D000368:Aged; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D019160:Endosonography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016606:Thyroid Nodule / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed