Thyroid lymphoma (TL) is a rare condition that typically presents as a painless neck mass. However, when it manifests with a painful thyroid mass, it can be misdiagnosed as subacute thyroiditis, which may lead to severe airway compromise and clinical challenges. We report the case of a 32‐year‐old woman who presented with painful neck swelling and was initially misdiagnosed with subacute thyroiditis. Her symptoms improved significantly with oral prednisone, but severe airway obstruction developed rapidly during steroid tapering. Intravenous dexamethasone was administered to manage compressive symptoms due to a high suspicion of TL. A definitive diagnosis of diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL) was subsequently established. The patient achieved complete remission following chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). This case highlights that TL can mimic subacute thyroiditis and that glucocorticoids can effectively alleviate airway compromise in suspected TL, potentially obviating the need for emergency surgical intervention while awaiting a definitive diagnosis.
Liu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: