ABSTRACT
The thyroid 367
Normal thyroid 367
Pathology 368
Benign thyroid disorders 372
Thyroid cancer 373
The pituitary 376
Pituitary tumours 376
Differential diagnosis 378
The parathyroids 379
Conclusion 380
Key learning points 380
References 380
What a lot of information, all in shades of greyy
There have been many advances in imaging in the last decade. Most hospitals now have access to ultrasound equipment with high spatial resolution and colour Doppler. Multislice CT has enabled the acquisition of thin section scans in a 3D data block enabling manipulation of the data to give high resolution images in any plane. Functional imaging using nuclear medicine, and in particular positron emission tomography, can assess tumour metabolism with FDG glucose positron emission tomography (PET) combined with computed tomography (CT) demonstrating areas of increased glucose metabolism with anatomical correlation.
