Chooah O, Ding J, Fei JL, Xu FY, Yue T, Pu CL, Hu HJ. Radiological insights of ectopic thyroid in the porta hepatis: A case report and review of the literature. World J Clin Cases 2021; 9(14): 3432-3441 [PMID: 34002155 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i14.3432]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hong-Jie Hu, MD, Chief Doctor, Director, Department of Radiology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, No. 3 Qingchun East Road, Hangzhou 310016, Zhejiang Province, China. hongjiehu@zju.edu.cn
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Outesh Chooah, Jing Ding, Jing-Le Fei, Fang-Yi Xu, Ting Yue, Cai-Ling Pu, Hong-Jie Hu, Department of Radiology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310016, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Hu HJ and Ding J made and interpreted the imaging findings; Xu FY, Fei JL, and Pu CL performed the research; Chooah O and Yue T analyzed the data; Chooah O wrote and proofread the manuscript; Hu HJ revised and reviewed the manuscript.
Supported byThe Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province, No. 2019C03064; and Program Co-sponsored by Province and Ministry, No. WKJ-ZJ-1926.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to report.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hong-Jie Hu, MD, Chief Doctor, Director, Department of Radiology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, No. 3 Qingchun East Road, Hangzhou 310016, Zhejiang Province, China. hongjiehu@zju.edu.cn
Received: December 4, 2020 Peer-review started: December 4, 2020 First decision: December 21, 2020 Revised: January 5, 2021 Accepted: February 22, 2021 Article in press: February 22, 2021 Published online: May 16, 2021 Processing time: 145 Days and 11.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Ectopic thyroid is defined as a rare developmental anomaly where thyroid tissues are atypically found in locations other than its normal anatomical position: Anterolateral to the second, third, and fourth tracheal cartilages. An intemperate descent or a migration failure of the thyroid anlage results in sub-diaphragmatic thyroid ectopia, a sparse clinical entity.
CASE SUMMARY
This case portrays a 63-year-old female patient presenting with chronic abdominal discomfort at a local hospital whereby a computed tomography (CT) scan revealed a well-defined mass in the hepatic entrance. For further examination, the patient underwent a CT scan with contrast, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and CT-angiography (CTA) at our department. The CT scan showed a well-defined and high attenuated mass measuring 43 mm × 38 mm in the hepatic entrance with calcification. The CTA revealed an additional finding: Blood supply to the mass from the right hepatic artery. MRI of the upper abdomen demonstrated a mass with mixed signal intensity on T1 and T2 weighted images in the hepatic entrance. The patient underwent surgery with resection of the mass which was sent for histopathology. Ectopic thyroid at the level of porta hepatis with nodules was the definitive diagnosis since histopathological report revealed presence of thyroid tissue in the resected liver mass.
CONCLUSION
This case delivers a rare insight of pre-operative radiological imaging of an ectopic thyroid located in the liver. These findings can aid in narrowing down potential differential diagnosis when managing a patient with those subsequent findings.
Core Tip: Thyroid ectopia specifically at the porta hepatis level is quite a rare clinical entity without any conclusive protocol for radiological diagnosis. This paper reviews the limited corresponding literature as well as the presentation of a clinical case in order to help physicians alongside radiologists to minimize misinterpretations and misdiagnosis of ectopic thyroid. This paper will hopefully contribute to the spectrum of information by portraying computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography angiography, and histopathology amongst a plethora of other data that will contribute in the optimization of the prevalence in conjunction with the management of thyroid ectopia.
