Sonographic and Elastographic Features of Extra- and Intrathyroidal Ectopic Thymus Mimicking Malignancy: Differential Diagnosis in Children

In conclusion, despite the low prevalence of IET and cervical EET, clinicians and radiologists should be aware of US characteristics of such lesions and of the necessity of confirmation of their benign character. Elastography is a useful tool to initially differentiate PTC and IET. However, due to the high risk of malignancy in thyroid lesions in children, similarity of US features of PTC and IET, and because of the possibility of malignancy in ET, only cytological evaluation provides definitive diagnosis and prevents, on one hand, unnecessary frequent diagnostic procedures and/or surgery and, on the other hand, missing malignant lesions. Ethics Statement This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of WHO′ Standards and operational guidance for ethics review of health-related research with human participants, with written informed consent from all subjects' parents. All subjects' parents gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The protocol was approved by the Ethic Committee of Polish Mother's Memorial Hospital–Research Institute, Lodz, Poland. Author Contributions MS was responsible for study design, data collection, data analysis, and writing of the manuscript. ZA, RS, and MT contributed to data collection and data analysis. TK contributed to data collection and was responsible for cytology smear assessment. AL contributed to study design, and writing of the manuscript. A...
Source: Frontiers in Endocrinology - Category: Endocrinology Source Type: research