Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes und Medizinische Fakultät der Universität des Saarlandes
The Thyroid
Prof. Dr. Samer Ezziddin

Thyroid Examination and Treatment: Nuclear Medicine in diagnosis & therapy of thyroid disease

 

Historical overview and general introduction

 

Although the vital functions of the thyroid gland have only been recognized and clarified in the last 120 years, the most frequent disease of the thyroid (Goiter) has been mentioned in scientific literature and represented in the fine arts for millennia.

Canvases depicting people with goiter or the typical facial expression of a hypothyroid can be found in the masterpieces of all times.

People with goiter were already depicted in Egyptian frescoes, including an illustration of Cleopatra with an enlarged thyroid in the neck from the 1st century BC. We owe Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings for the nice representations of the anatomy of the thyroid gland and the goiter. The use of iodinated salt for thyroid diseases was already recognized at that time.

 

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