# Ultrasound Results--Huh?



## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

I got a copy of my thyroid ultrasound results today and I can't make heads or tails of them. My endo is calling me next week to discuss, but of course, I'm super impatient! Does anyone have thoughts/experience/ability to decipher this:

CLINICAL HISTORY: History of recurrent thyroiditis.

COMPARISON: None

FINDINGS: The right thyroid lobe measured 4.3 x 1.5 x 1.3 centimeters and
the left thyroid lobe measured 4.2 x 1.7 x 1.0 centimeters in size. The
isthmus was 3 millimeters in AP dimension. The underlying echotexture
was diffusely abnormal. There were fine hypoechoic nodules studding the
thyroid throughout measuring only a couple millimeters in size. No
discrete superimposed nodule is present.

Inferior to both thyroid lobes are some central neck nodes measuring on
the right 8 x 3 x 6 mm and on the left 1.5 x 1.1 x 0.5 cm. The overall
appearance of the thyroid and regional soft tissues suggests underlying
autoimmune thyroiditis.

Edited to add--what's funny is that my previous idiot endo did a quick ultrasound in May and my right thyroid was 4.5 x 1.7 x 1.6 cm and my left was 4.5 x 1.4 x 1.3 cm, so it's gone down in size since then.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

That sounds, overall, like the classic "grape-like" structure of a thyroid in someone who has Hashi's.

I would, however, be really interested to see what the doctor says about those nodes...


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## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

> I would, however, be really interested to see what the doctor says about those nodes...


Do you mean the central neck nodes they mentioned in the last paragraph? I'm curious about that--do they mean lymph nodes, I wonder?

The whole thing is written in English but I don't understand 90% of it!


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## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

Finally got to speak to my endo last night about my ultrasound results and she said it looks like a classic case of Hashi's--my thyroid looks honeycombed and she said the "central neck nodes" in the report were lymph nodes that were probably still swollen from my recent flare up.

She basically said it was my choice to have my thyroid removed since it's been very hard to control my symptoms and levels with medication for years now, but since my labs look pretty good right now she wants me to wait to make a decision until my thyroid flares up again so she can see it in person (I started going to her in July so she's only seen my bad flare ups in my records). I thought that was fair, so she set up standing orders at the lab and whenever I feel like it's acting up again I can just go right in and do blood work without having to have an appointment.

I think eventually I'm going to opt towards having it removed (esp. since it's caused high cholesterol, low B12 and D, kidney stones and chronic constipation!) but I want to do it right and not rush into anything.

Is it wrong to want to encourage my thyroid to act up soon so I can have my endo see it in person?


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