Karavas E, Tokur O, Aydın S, Gokharman D, Uner C. Intrathyroidal ectopic thymus: Ultrasonographic features and differential diagnosis. Artif Intell Med Imaging 2021; 2(2): 32-36 [DOI: 10.35711/aimi.v2.i2.32]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Erdal Karavas, MD, MSc, Associate Professor, Department of Radiology, Erzincan Binali Yildirim University, Yalnızbağ Yerleşkesi, Erzincan 24100, Turkey. erdalkaravas@hotmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Erdal Karavas, Sonay Aydın, Department of Radiology, Erzincan Binali Yildirim University, Erzincan 24100, Turkey
Oguzhan Tokur, Dilek Gokharman, Department of Radiology, Ankara Training and Research Hospital, Ankara 06230, Turkey
Cigdem Uner, Department of Child Radiology, Ankara Sami Ulus Training and Research Hospital, Ankara 06560, Turkey
Author contributions: Karavas E, Tokur O, Aydin S, Gokharman D, Uner C contribute to the conceptualization, methodology, supervision, and the manuscript writing, review and editing; Karavas E, Tokur O, Aydin S contribute to the data curation, software; Karavas E, Tokur O, Gokharman D, Uner C contribute to the validation; Karavas E, Tokur O, Uner C contribute to the visualization; Karavas E, Tokur O, Aydin S, Gokharman D contribute to the writing, original draft of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Erdal Karavas, MD, MSc, Associate Professor, Department of Radiology, Erzincan Binali Yildirim University, Yalnızbağ Yerleşkesi, Erzincan 24100, Turkey. erdalkaravas@hotmail.com
Received: March 17, 2021 Peer-review started: March 17, 2021 First decision: March 26, 2021 Revised: March 29, 2021 Accepted: April 20, 2021 Article in press: April 20, 2021 Published online: April 28, 2021 Processing time: 40 Days and 13.9 Hours
Abstract
Intrathyroidal ectopic thymus (IET) is defined as an ectopic thymus tissue that is generally found incidentally and rarely in the thyroid gland in the pediatric group. It occurs as a result of disruption of the embryological migration path and the settling of the thymus tissue into the thyroid gland. In the differential diagnosis, it is mostly confused with thyroid nodules. Although thyroid nodules are less common in children than adults, the rate of malignancy is much higher. Therefore, knowing the general ultrasound findings of IET better may prevent unnecessary invasive attempts and surgical procedures. In this article, we tried to compile the key imaging findings of IET.
Core Tip: The unique ultrasonographic features of intrathyroidal ectopic thymus (IET) can be remembered as; well-circumscribed, hypoechoic eco pattern with linear or punctate echogenic foci resembling thymus, fusiform or oval shape, diameters smaller than 1 cm, location of middle and/or lower 1/3 part of thyroid gland, hypovascularity or avascularity and the same strain ratio values with the surrounding thyroid gland on elastography. Although some studies suggested cytopathological examination for the accurate diagnosis of a suspected IET case, majority of the previous studies stated that IET can be followed without the presence of any atypical findings. So that, unnecessary surgical or interventional procedures can be avoided.
