Goiter as Initial Manifestation of Hodgkin's Disease

The occurrence of lesions in the thyroid gland of patients dying from lymphoblastoma is rather high, being about 17%.1 However, the frequency of thyroid envolvement was less, about 7%, when the patients had Hodgkin's disease. In most instances the changes in the thyroid gland produce neither enlargement nor functional changes. Thyroid enlargement as a presenting sign has been reported in rare cases of lymphosarcoma,2,3 or reticulum-cell sarcoma,4 but goiter as an initial manifestation of Hodgkin's disease is most unusual, one case having been reported since 1938.5 In view of the infrequent occurrence of significant thyroid enlargement as an initial symptom of this disease we thought it worthwhile to report the case of a patient with Hodgkin's disease who presented a clinical picture simulating acute thyroiditis. REPORT OF CASE A male patient, age 64, was in good health until 3 weeks prior to his admission to the