thyroid gland

My thyroid gland is swollen,  does a cat scan pick up you have thyroid gland cancer?

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  The CAT scan may not be the best procedure for diagnosing thyroid cancer.  If a mass is palpable, a combination of a thyroid ultrasound, and biopsy should clinch the diagnosis.

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Additional thought: before even investigating the possibility of malignancy, non-cancerous causes of thyroid enlargement/swelling (e.g. hyperthyroidism, thyroiditis) should be investigated.  So before doing anything else, serum thyroid function tests (TSH, FT4) should be determined.

[Girly59]

Thank you for coming back to me about this.  Would you please tell me if this is the results you are talking about?  I have spoken to my Dr today and asked him for my results.  Dr said that the blood tests confirm grave dicease.

The results are as follow;

TSH Receptor Antibodies 4.1H - Anti-Thyroid stimulating hormone receptor antibodies are present in the majority of patients with Graves disease and their continuing presence after treatment for hyperthyriodism suggests a relapse is likely.  
The results for 22/01/08;

T4 - 40.5
TSH - 0.03
T3 - 17.2

I have been using for a week now 10mg Neomercazole tablets and my house doctor made it today 30mg until I can see a specialist for this, if you have any suggestions on this then it will be great.

Now in 2006 I didn't have the same symptoms at all, the diziness, headaches.  But I was also told today, that my cat scan showed the following and I have no idea what this would mean and if this would be the reason for the headaches and diziness.  The head cat scan reports says 'A 1.5 x 0.2mm linear are in the left frontal region maybe due to vascular anomaly such as venous angioma'  I have no idea what this mean, if you can share more light on this also,  I would appreciate it and if you think it is necessary to see a  neurologist or is this not something to worry about?

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  Yes, those are the test results I was looking for, and yes, they do confirm that you have Grave's disease (or hyperactivity of the thyroid gland).  The finding on your head CAT scan may just be incidental.  Grave's disease can already explain the headaches and dizziness that you're feeling.  My suggestion is to wait for the thyroid medication to take full effect. If the headache and dizziness disappears, then it's most probably due to the thyroid problem.  If it doesn't, then that CAT scan finding may need to be investigated further.

[Girly59]

Thank Dr. for coming back to me on this and I will follow your advise.

Have a great day.