Case Report Ultrasonographic and Scintigraphic Findings of Thyroid Hemiagenesis in a Child: Report of a Rare Male Case

Copyright © 2015 Ümit Yaşar Ayaz et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Thyroid hemiagenesis is a rare congenital anomaly inwhich one lobe of thyroid gland fails to develop. It ismuch rarer inmales.There is a higher incidence of associated thyroid disorders in patients with thyroid hemiagenesis; therefore early and prompt diagnosis is important for children. We present the ultrasonographic and scintigraphic findings of thyroid hemiagenesis in an eight-year-old-boy. On ultrasonography (US), left lobe of the thyroid gland could not be demonstrated and the right lobe showed minimal hyperplasia. Its echogenicity was normal and no nodule was seen. On thyroid scintigraphy, left lobe of thyroid gland or any ectopic thyroid tissue could not be demonstrated, while the right lobe showed minimal hyperplasia. Without performing any invasive procedure, we enrolled the child in a follow-up program with the guidance of US and scintigraphy, which were effective both in making the final diagnosis of thyroid hemiagenesis and in evaluating the current status of the present thyroid tissue. In conclusion, if only one thyroid lobe is detected in a pediatric case initially with US or scintigraphy, the diagnosis of thyroid hemiagenesis should be suggested and, before any unnecessary or invasive attempt, the other complementary method (scintigraphy/US) should be performed. 1