A patient of isolated myelopathy secondary to papillary thyroid carcinoma with excellent response to surgical resection

Abstract

A young Chinese male suffered from progressive gait disturbance and ataxia for five years. Symmetric longitudinally extensive hyperintensity on T2WI involving C5-T7 segments was found by Spinal MRI. Thyroid ultrasound indicated that he had multiple parenchymal nodules in the right lobe with calcification in the larger ones (TI-RADS: 4b). The puncture of the right thyroid lobe indicated classic papillary carcinoma with capsule invasion and vascular lymph node infiltration. His symptoms alleviated obviously one month after right thyroid lobe and lymph node excision only with mild gait disturbance left. The patient fully recovered at follow-up one year after surgery.

Keywords

• Paraneoplastic myelopathy
• Papillary thyroid carcinoma
• Surgical resection
• Case report