Ultrasound Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Ultrasound, including details on screening, diagnosis, pregnancy, detection.

Diagnostic imaging of the thyroid and adrenal glands in childhood.

Daneman D, Daneman A

Department of Pediatrics, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada. denis.daneman@sickkids.ca

This article reviews the clinical utility of modern imaging techniques, particularly ultrasound (US), CT, and MRI in children with disorders of the thyroid and adrenal glands. Radionuclide scanning is the modality of choice in making the anatomic diagnosis in neonates with congenital hypothyroidism, while US is most useful in defining nodular thyroid disease. CT and MRI of the thyroid tend to be limited to defining the extent of thyroid carcinoma. Adrenal US is an essential step in the differential diagnosis of ambiguous genitalia or salt-losing crises in the newborn, while CT and MRI are more useful in defining the anatomy of the adrenals in older children with tumors or diffuse hyperplasia of the glands.

Published 8 August 2005 in Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am, 34(3): 745-68, xi.
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