Thyrolipomatosis: an inquisitive rare entity

Normally, adipose tissue is observed in the parathyroid, salivary glands, thymus, breasts and pancreas; however, it is unusual to detect adipose tissue in the thyroid gland. Fat containing lesions of thyroid are very rare with only a few cases described in the literature. Normal thyroid occasionally may show presence of mature adipocytes in perivascular and subcapsular area anteriorly (1). Various fat containing lesions described in literature are heterotopic adipocytic nests, intrathyroidal thymic or parathyroid lipoma, lymphocytic thyroiditis, amyloid goiter containing lipomatous tissue, adenolipoma, lipomatosis, encapsulated papillary carcinoma and liposarcoma (2). We report a rare case of thyrolipomatosis in a 32-year-old hyperthyroid female and discuss briefly the proposed theories of pathogenesis and differential diagnosis of fat containing thyroid lesions