A rare case of triple thyroid ectopia
A 42-year-old woman was examined by CT as a client of health check-up to study neck and brain vessels. Her history revealed that she was investigated and counseled by a physician for a nodule over the midline in the neck a few years ago. She was subjected to thyroid function tests, which were normal and excluded hypo or hyper thyroidism. She was correctly advised not to do any further investigation, worry about it or get rid of it surgically.\nCT revealed etopic thyroid nodules over the surface of posterior tongue, anterosuperior and close to body of hyoid bone and in sub-hyoid region as an enlarged pyramidal lobe. The normal thyroid lobes and isthmus were absent and as a result common carotid and internal jugular veins were closely applied to trachea without the interposing thyroid lobes []. All these were un-connected and separated by 5-8 mms in craniocaudal direction in the midline. These were hyperdense and showed enhancement (post contrast CT value measuring more than 200. A nuclear scan was performed using 3 millicuries of Technetium 99m pertechnetate administered intravenously. The static images were acquired at 20 minutes. The frontal projection showed two hot spots, a smaller and upper one between submandibular glands due to lingual ectopia and the lower larger one due to combined activity from pre-hyoid (sublingual) and pyramidal ectopic gland [].\nAs she was now asymptomatic and nuclear scan had ruled out any abnormal thyroid function, repeat thyroid function tests were also not recommended.