Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Thyroid heterotopia is an abnormal location of coexisting normal thyroid tissue with a normal organ and normal location. It is a congenital anomaly due to a defect in the maturation of the thyroid tissues, which is distinguished from ectopic thyroid and from a thyroid cancer metastasis.

Observation: We report the case of a 65-year-old patient, with no notable history, who consulted for clinical signs of thyrotoxicosis associating asthenia, tachycardia, thermophobia and unquantified weight loss. The thyroid hormone balance confirmed hyperthyroidism (TSH at 0 mIU/l and high FT4). Cervical ultrasound showed a normal thyroid appearance. Scintigraphy thyroid test with Technetium 99m revealed a nodule under the left hyper-fixing maxilla extinguishing the thyroid parenchyma. The patient received treatment with iodine 131 iodine therapy at a dose of 20 mcu. The evolution is marked by a disappearance of the clinical signs and a normalization of the thyroid profile. A control thyroid scintigraphy was performed objectifying a disappearance of the nodule under the left maxilla.

Discussion and conclusion: Sub maxillary thyroid heterotopia is rare, the clinical expression can be variable depending on function of neighboring organs, the diagnosis is essentially based on scintigraphy thyroid, which makes it possible to objectify hyper fixation and to obtain a precise etiological diagnosis in front of the discrepancy between the thyroid profile and the cervical ultrasound. Treatment by iodine therapy allows rapid healing.