Lingual thyroid with hypothyroidism in a child

ABSTRACT

Ectopic thyroid is an uncommon embryological abnormality characterized by the presence of thyroid tissue in a site other than its usual pretracheal location. Of all ectopic thyroids 90% are found to be lingual. Lingual thyroid is estimated to occur in 0.2 per cent of normal children, being more common in females. It is a rare congenital anomaly appearing with prevalence of 1100000. This embryological anomaly originates from failure of thyroid gland to descend from foramen caecum to its normal pre laryngeal site. Interestingly, only 0.01% of these patients present with any overt symptoms. If symptomatic dyspnoea dysphagia, dysphonia and stomatolalia are some common clinical features associated with it. In females these symptoms manifest during stress as in pregnancy, puberty and menstruation. Some rare clinical presentations reported in literature are hyperthyroidism, malignancy and hemoptysis. Hereby authors are reporting a 7-year-old female child who presented to our department with dysphagia who on evaluation diagnosed to have lingual thyroid with hypothyroidism.