Oral Health and Dental Management

Lingual thyroid gland: A case report

3^rd Euro Congress and Expo on Dental & Oral Health

June 16-18, 2015 Alicante, Spain

Bode Rovena, Agolli Medi, Celiku Etmond, Kaci Myzafer, Domi Rudin and Alimehmeti Medi

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: Oral Health Dent Manag

Abstract:

Background: Lingual thyroid (LT) is a developmental disorder due to the failure of the thyroid gland to migrate from its anlage, foramen caecum to its prelaryngeal site. Lingual position represents the most frequent ectopic location accounting up to 90% of ectopic cases. It is found at the junction of the anterior two thirds and the posterior part of tongue, often asymptomatic but growing may cause local symptoms as upper airway obstruction, disphagia and hemorrhage at any time from infancy to adulthood. Methods: We represent the case of a 33 years old patient with a mass at the base of the tongue, measuring 5-6 cm in size smooth, rubbery and reddish, with no signs of ulceration. She complained for a swelling at the base of the tongue, disfagia and dispnea.The patient was examined in the service of endocrinology, with thyroid level tests, ultrasound, scintigraphy and CT-scan. Results: The patient was operated during childhood for a subhyoid thyroglossal cyst. She was euthyroid when she was admitted. Scintigraphy revealed increased isotope uptake at the lingual region and absence of isotope uptake in the neck region. CT-scan revealed thyroid mass at the base of the tongue and the neck region was free. Other laboratory tests were within normal limits. The diagnosis was lingual thyroid gland. Conclusions: Lingual thyroid is a developmental anomaly, found between the epiglottis and the circumvallate papillae, often asymptomatic but growing may cause local symptoms as upper airway obstruction, disphagia and hemorrhage at any time from infancy to adulthood. Thyroid scintigraphy plays the most important role in diagnosing ectopic gland. Elective surgical resection under general anesthesia is the method of choice of treatment. Keywords: lingual thyroid (LT), ectopic thyroid, aberrant embryogenesis, fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC).