riedels disease

[joyce59]

at the scan i had in january the physician said i showed signs of thyroid gland fibrosis. Ive looked this up on-line and it appears to also be called riedels disease. Has any-one else has this and was it treated the same as hashimotos? I also believe it maybe uncommon.

[Clutter]

Joyce59,

It is apparently rare emedicine.medscape.com/arti...

Hashimoto's isn't treated. The hypothyroidism it causes is treated and I think that will be the same for Reidels Disease.

[joyce59 in reply to Clutter]

thanks clutter if it turns out thats what ive got (still having a battle with the medics) how can i find out for sure? The gp isnt convinced and as you may recall the endo last week wasnt either. having said all that ive spoken to patient relations at the hospital and their going to investagate so fingers crossed.

[Clutter in reply to joyce59]

Joyce59,

I don't know how you tell whether it's Reidels or Hashimoto's. If you have positive thyroid peroxidase or thyroglobulin antibodies that would point towards Hashimoto's which eventually atrophies the thyroid gland until it is a small fibrous mass. In the end both destroy the thyroid gland causing hypothyroidism.

[shaws Administrator]

This is from Thyroiduk's website and hope it is helpful.

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/about_...

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to shaws]

We have had a couple of people suffering from Riedel's post here. The link below may be of some interest - I'll only quote the first two paragraphs - there is more by going to the site:

RIEDEL’S THYROIDITIS

Initially described by Semple in 1864 and Bolby in 1888[227], the condition then again reported in 1896 by Riedel as an “eisenharte” (iron hard) fixed and usually painless enlargement of the thyroid [228-230] is a chronic sclerosing thyroiditis, occurring especially in women, that tends to progress inexorably to complete destruction of the thyroid gland and frequently causes pressure symptoms in the neck [228, 231, 232]. It is exceedingly rare with estimated incidence of 1.06 cases per 100,000 population and 37/57,000 (0.06%) surgical outcomes over a 64 year period[233]. In the Mayo Clinic series [233] it occurred approximately one-fiftieth as frequently as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. It is more frequent in women (F:M 3.1:1)[48, 133, 228, 234] who were recently reported to represent 81% of those with confirmed Riedel’s in a Mayo clinic series[235]. Riedel’s thyroiditis is principally reported to occur in the 30- to 50 year age group[48, 234, 235].

Pathology

The thyroid gland is normal in size or enlarged, focally or symmetrically involved, and extremely (woody) hard. The gland is replaced by the inflammatory process which may extend into adjacent structures including parathyroid, skeletal muscle, nerves, blood vessels as well as the trachea[236]. Gross observation of the mass reveals a pale gray appearance similar to a malignant lesion[237]. There are no tissues planes visible and the cut surface of the mass is stark white due to the hypovascularity of the tissue[238]. Histologically normal tissue is replaced by inflammatory cells, predominantly lymphocytes, plasma cells, eosinophils[234, 239],and small amounts of colloid[240-242] in a dense matrix of hyalinized connective tissue. Characteristically, an inflammatory reaction of the venous vascular structures has been described[237]. An oft stated criterion useful in assuring the pathologic diagnosis is to note the absence of granulomatous tissue and malignancy[234, 237, 238]. A potentially difficult differential diagnostic decision may be encountered with rare sarcomas of the thyroid region[243] or with the pauci-cellular variant of anaplastic thyroid cancer which although similar in gross appearance will have distinctive histopathologic immunohistochemical findings[244].

thyroidmanager.org/chapter/...

[joyce59 in reply to helvella]

thanks helvella thats sounds about like how the scan report described it as i have connective tissue fragments and thick scarring.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to joyce59]

Type "reidel" into the search box at top right to find the three previous threads.

[joyce59]

thanks helvella iam hoping to get a second opinion soon and have requested to see a senior consultant who also recently did an interesting thyroid talk at the hospital where i work. does sound as if its rare and not much is known on the condition.

[Nordidordi in reply to joyce59]

Hi Joyce I wonder if you have had any success with a diagnosis?