Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Aug;4(4):301-6.
doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2227-684X.2015.05.11.

The presentation of lymph nodes in Hashimoto's thyroiditis on ultrasound

Mark R Jones  1 , Hossam Mohamed  1 , Jennifer Catlin  1 , Daniel April  1 , Zaid Al-Qurayshi  1 , Emad Kandil  1
Affiliations

The presentation of lymph nodes in Hashimoto's thyroiditis on ultrasound

Mark R Jones et al. Gland Surg. 2015 Aug.

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: Comprehensive neck ultrasound (US) examination has become an essential component of preoperative workup for patients with thyroid cancer. Regional cervical lymph nodes may be involved in cases of Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT). This study seeks to examine the sonographic pattern of lymph nodes in patients with HT.

Methods: This is a retrospective study looking at patients with confirmed diagnoses of HT on final surgical pathology who underwent preoperative comprehensive neck US. We compared preoperative ultrasound for patients with HT to euthyroid patients with goiter. Data collected included number, size and ultrasonographic features of cervical lymph nodes.

Results: We included a total of 417 patients: 202 patients with HT in the study group, and 215 patients with goiter and euthyroid status in the control group. Patients with HT had a higher number of total cervical lymph nodes than the control group (2.00±2.35 vs. 0.76±1.36 mm; P<0.0001), most notably in cervical levels III and IV (P<0.05 for both).

Conclusions: HT seems to be associated with an ultrasonographic pattern of increased number of enlarged cervical lymph nodes, particularly in levels III, and IV.

Keywords: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT); lymph nodes; ultrasound (US).

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

References

    1. Caturegli P, De Remigis A, Rose NR. Hashimoto thyroiditis: clinical and diagnostic criteria. Autoimmun Rev 2014;13:391-7. - PubMed
    1. Vanderpump MP, Tunbridge WM, French JM, et al. The incidence of thyroid disorders in the community: a twenty-year follow-up of the Whickham Survey. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf) 1995;43:55-68. - PubMed
    1. Pearce EN, Farwell AP, Braverman LE. Thyroiditis. N Engl J Med 2003;348:2646-55. - PubMed
    1. Ahmed AM, Ahmed NH. History of disorders of thyroid dysfunction. East Mediterr Health J 2005;11:459-69. - PubMed
    1. Chistiakov DA. Immunogenetics of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. J Autoimmune Dis 2005;2:1. - PMC - PubMed