Thyroid Paraganglioma: An Extremely Rare Tumor of the Thyroid

Adnan Özpek, Gözde Kir, Hüseyin Kerem Tolan, Metin Yucel, Kemal Tekesin, Gürhan Bas and Orhan Alimoglu

Department of General Surgery, Umraniye Training and Research Hospital, Turkey
Department of Pathology, Umraniye Training and Research Hospital, Turkey
Department of General Surgery, Usküdar State Hospital, Turkey
Department of General Surgery, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Turkey

^*Correspondance to: Adnan Özpek 

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Abstract:

Background: Paraganglioma originates from the para-ganglionic system which is mostly located in the adrenal gland medulla is a rare condition seen in the thyroid gland accounting for the 0.1% of all the thyroid malignancies.Case
Presentation: A 67 years old female patient was admitted to our out-patient clinic with a swelling around the neck and an unexplained chronic cough. The ultrasound (US) revealed a 33 x 20 mm hypoechoic nodule on the right lobe of the thyroid gland without any cervical lymph node enlargement. Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNAB) was performed from the dominant nodule with the guidance of US. In the cytopathology report there was a suspicion of neuro-endocrine tumor. In the operation the nodule was found to be fixed to the adjacent trachea and a Total Thyroidectomy was performed to the patient. Finally, in the histopathology report the diagnosis was Thyroid Paraganglioma (TP). Screening of the patient 29 months after the operation and no metastasis or local recurrences were seen in the ultrasound and PET scan (F-18 FDG). Tests performed for the detection of catecholamine secretion were found to be in normal limits.Conclusion: TP must be considered in differential diagnosis of the neuroendocrine tumors of the thyroid. The main difficulty is in the differential diagnosis with the Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma (MTC). The immunohistochemical stains applied has a major role in the differential diagnosis. The long term post-operative follow up of these patients by the imaging modalities and the catecholamine levels is recommended.

Keywords:

Immunohistochemistry; Histopathology; Thyroid tumors; Paraganglioma

Cite the Article:

Özpek A, Kir G, Tolan HK, Yucel M, Tekesin K, Bas G, et al. Thyroid Paraganglioma: An Extremely Rare Tumor of the Thyroid. Ann Clin Case Rep. 2016; 1: 1188.