Thyroid Diseases

Summary

Your thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland in the front of your neck. It makes hormones that control the way the body uses energy. These hormones affect nearly every organ and control many of your body's most important functions. For example, they affect your breathing, heart rate, weight, digestion, and mood.

 

Thyroid diseases cause your thyroid to make either too much or too little of the hormones. Some of the different thyroid diseases include:

• Goiter is an enlargement of the thyroid gland
• Hyperthyroidism, which happens when your thyroid gland makes more thyroid hormones than your body needs
• Hypothyroidism, which happens when your thyroid gland does not make enough thyroid hormones
• Thyroid cancer
• Thyroid nodules, lumps in the thyroid gland
• Thyroiditis, swelling of the thyroid

 

Your healthcare provider may use a medical history, physical exam, and thyroid tests to diagnose thyroid diseases. In some cases, your provider may also do a biopsy.

Treatment depends on the problem, how severe it is, and what your symptoms are. Possible treatments may include medicines, radioiodine therapy, or thyroid surgery.

Thyroid Tests

Your thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland in the front of your neck. It makes hormones that control the way the body uses energy. These hormones affect nearly every organ and control many of your body's most important functions. For example, they affect your breathing, heart rate, weight, digestion, and mood.

 

Thyroid tests check how well your thyroid is working. They are also used to diagnose and help find the cause of thyroid diseases such as hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. Thyroid tests include blood tests and imaging tests.

Blood tests for your thyroid include:

• TSH. It measures thyroid-stimulating hormones. This is usually the first test your healthcare provider will order.
• T3 and T4.They measure the level of the different thyroid hormones in your blood.
• Thyroid antibodies test. It measures certain thyroid antibodies (markers in the blood). This test may help diagnose autoimmune thyroid disorders.

Imaging tests include:

• CT scans
• Ultrasound
• Nuclear medicine tests, including:
• Thyroid scan. It uses small amounts of radioactive material to create a picture of the thyroid, showing its size, shape, and position. It can help find the cause of hyperthyroidism and check for thyroid nodules (lumps in the thyroid).
• Radioactive iodine uptake test, or thyroid uptake test. It checks how well your thyroid works and can help find the cause of hyperthyroidism.