New insight into ectopic thyroid glands between the neck and maxillofacial region from a 42-case study

BMC Endocrine Disorders

Yingli Lu⁴  Qin Li⁴  Yongshun Han¹  Feng Xu²  Aichun Gu²  Lizhen Wang³  Fangzhen Xia⁴  Ningjian Wang⁴  Boren Jiang⁴  Ting Gu⁴ 

[1]Department of Radiology, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

[2]Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

[3]Department of Oral Pathology, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

[4]Institute and Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200011, China

关键词: Malignant cells;    Calcitonin;    Thyroid transcription factor-1;    Lingual thyroid;    Ectopic thyroid;   

Others  :  1233961
DOI  :  10.1186/s12902-015-0066-6

 received in 2015-09-11, accepted in 2015-11-11,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

Ectopic thyroid is a rare disease. In the present study at the 9th People’s Hospital in Shanghai, China, 42 patients’ ectopic thyroid glands between the neck and maxillofacial region were subjected to a retrospective and transverse study based on data from 1978 to 2012 to explore the natural characteristics of ectopic thyroid.

Methods

The patients’ clinical data were collected. In addition, scintigraphy (Tc-99 m, Iodine-131), CT scan, histology and pathology were performed. The protein expression of thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1), thyroglobulin (TG), calcitonin (CT), Ki-67 and parathyroid hormone (PTH) were analyzed from paraffin wax-stored specimens of ectopic thyroid tissue compared with those of orthotopic thyroid tissue.

Results

There were 42 total ectopic thyroid patients, approximately 1.24 patients per year on average at our hospital. These patients were aged from 6 to 85 years old, and there were 35 females (83.3 %), seven males (16.7 %). In total, 27 of the patients had lingual thyroid (64 %); seven, sublingual thyroid (17 %); five, dual areas occupied by ectopic thyroid (12 %) and three, other types (7 %). The following conditions were also presented: nodular goiter (13 %), adenoma (8.7 %) and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (4.3 %), no malignancy and no accompanying ectopic parathyroid. TTF-1 expression was significantly higher in ectopic samples than that in orthotopic samples (P = 0.007), but CT and Ki-67 levels displayed no difference. PTH was negative in ectopic tissue.

Conclusion

Ectopic thyroid is a rare disease and females were more prone to the disease. The most frequent location was lingual thyroid. Nodular goiter, adenoma and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis was observed as orthotopic thyroid without accompanying ectopic parathyroid. TTF-1 was highly expressed in ectopic tissue, which may be related to abnormal embryogenesis leading to the thyroid gland being in an abnormal position. The expression of calcitonin (CT) and Ki-67 was not increased, and there were no malignant cells in any sample, which could indicate that it is not easy for ectopic thyroids to become malignant between the neck and maxillofacial region.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Gu et al.

【 图 表 】

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