Thyroid & parathyroid
Thyroiditis
Focal lymphocytic thyroiditis
Author: Shahid Islam, M.D., Ph.D.
Last author update: 1 March 2009
Last staff update: 28 July 2023
Copyright: 2003-2024, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: focal lymphocytic thyroiditis
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Epidemiology | Clinical features | Treatment | Gross description | Microscopic (histologic) description | Microscopic (histologic) images | Electron microscopy description | Electron microscopy imagesCite this page: Islam S. Focal lymphocytic thyroiditis. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/thyroidfocallymphocytic.html. Accessed November 27th, 2024.
Definition / general
- Focal lymphocytes in thyroid gland
- Usually an incidental finding
Epidemiology
- 5 - 20% of adult autopsies, more common in elderly women (Endocr J 2000;47:575)
Clinical features
- Associated with low levels of antithyroid antibodies, lack of clinical symptoms
- May be early or mild form of autoimmune thyroiditis (J Clin Pathol 1969;22:326)
Treatment
- None
Gross description
- No findings
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Focal aggregates of lymphocytes in inter- or intralobular fibrous tissue
- No oxyphilic metaplasia, no follicular atrophy, no follicular disruption
- May be associated with other thyroid disease
Microscopic (histologic) images
Images hosted on other servers:
Patchy lymphocytic inflammation
Small and large lymphocytes,
occasional plasma cells
Electron microscopy description
- Extra- and intrafollicular lymphocytes (Immunobiology 1994;190:290)
Electron microscopy images
Images hosted on other servers:
Coarsely
condensed
chromatin at
nuclear periphery
