Re: No Thyroid?

["Michael P. Grissom" <mikeg@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>]

Scott et al.,

An individual can indeed have thyroid tissue (essentially normal) at
unusual locations throughout the body.  This is a phenomenon of
developmental anatomy (in fact most thyroid tissue in SOME individuals
is NOT in the normal thyroid bed in the cervical region, as an example,
at least one patient that I have known of had an essentially normal 
thyroid gland in the lumbar area!).

Unfortunately, in the non-euthyroid (abnormal) patient, the thyroid
active tissue outside of the thyroid bed can be metastases
of thyroid carcinoma.

Hope this clarifies the possibilities some (every human being
is a trully unique biological entity, which makes life very difficult
for the internal dosimetrist!),

S.,

MikeG.

At 01:53 PM 4/29/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Actually, I was surprised to hear last week that there was thyroid tissue
>throughout the body.  When radioiodine treatment was given to a co-workers
>brother for thyroid ablation, apparently, "hot spots" showed up throughout
>the body.  The physician indicated that this was actual thyroid tissue.
>Sort of like when a woman has the misfortune of developing endometriosis, it
>is actual uterus tissue spreading elsewhere in the body.  But in the case of
>thyroid tissue, it is more common.  Can anyone elaborate or correct any
>misunderstanding I may have had?
>
>Scott O. Schwahn, CHP


-----------------------
Michael P. Grissom
Assistant Director (ES&H) 
SLAC
mailto:mikeg@slac.stanford.edu
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