Unusual clinical accompaniment of inflammatory thyroiditis preceding hypothyroidism in radiotherapy of head-and-neck cancer

Abstract

The authors report an unusual clinical phenomenon of head-and-neck radiotherapy-induced thyroiditis presenting with clinical features of hyperthyroidism on immediate clinical follow-up with raised thyroid hormone levels. Conventional technetium thyroid scan showed a discordantly absent thyroid gland uptake instead of expected thyroid avidity in hyperthyroidism. The thyroid gland subsequently reverting to normal uptake in the postrecovery stage confirmed the thyroiditis nature, with prior radiation to the neck being the possible inciting factor.

Keywords

• external beam radiotherapy
• image-guided radiation therapy
• technetium thyroid scan
• thyroiditis