Author/Authors :
Hoda, S Department of Pathology - Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Guilan , Safarpor, F Department of Surgery - Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Guilan , Safarpor, D Department of Surgery - Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Guilan , Hedayati-Omami, MH Guilan Endocrine and Metabolism Research Center - Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Guilan , Mohammadi, F Guilan Endocrine and Metabolism Research Center - Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Guilan
Abstract :
The incidence of tuberculosis is high and extrapulmonary tuberculosis is seen more frequently, the
thyroid tuberculosis is rare. Thyroid tuberculosis is presented as thyroid nodule, thyroiditis or abscess
formation. This condition should therefore be recognized whenever goiter is being treated,
because it has an entirely different treatment. The aim of this report is to present thyroid tuberculosis
in order to gain a better understanding of its clinical characteristic, diagnosis and treatment
we present 9 cases of thyroid tuberculosis since 1995-2006 from north of Iran. They comprised 5
patients with thyroiditis, 2 cases with abscess formation and 2 with thyroid nodules. All patients
were diagnosed using Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) and treated by repeated surgery and antituberculosis
drugs. It is concluded that tuberculosis of thyroid should be kept in mind while treating
diseases of the thyroid such as thyroid nodule, thyroiditis, thyrotoxicosis especially in communities
with high prevalence of tuberculosis. The diagnosis of thyroid tuberculosis is facilitated by
FNA and its treatment is achieved by simple surgery as well as anti-tuberculosis therapy.
