title: Incidentally Visualization of the Thymus on Whole-Body Iodine Scintigraphy: Report of 2 Cases and Review of the Latest Insights.
abstract: Radioiodine uptake is not commonly seen by the thymus gland. On the contrary, the gland is slowly replaced by fat after puberty. Herein, we present 2 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma, follicular variant, and cervical lymph node involvement. After total/near-total thyroidectomy, the patients received I for ablation therapy. On posttreatment radioiodine scintigraphy, mediastinal I uptake was noted that finally was histologically/anatomically diagnosed as thymus gland uptake. It should be borne in mind as a potential cause of false-positive whole-body I scintigraphy.
authors.affiliation: From the Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Research Center (MH, FF), Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haghighatafshar
authors.forename: Farinaz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Farhoudi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007455:Iodine; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000077273:Thyroid Cancer, Papillary; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*
chemical_list: D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes; D007455:Iodine