ABSTRACT

Lingual thyroid is a developmental anomaly caused by undescended thy-roid tissue at the base of the tongue. In the majority of patients, the lingual thyroid is the only functioning thyroid gland tissue. Therefore early diag-nosis with imaging techniques is clinically important to avoid permanent hypothyroidism following surgical removal. Imaging findings of this entity have previously been reported. Although varying degrees of contrast enhan-cement have been described, the most frequent presentation is a smoothly shaped enhancing mass at the base of the tongue. We present two cases of lingual thyroid in order to emphasize the wide spectrum of radiological findings encountered in this rare developmental anomaly.