STRUMA LYMPHOMATOSA: PRIMARY THYROID FAILURE WITH COMPENSATORY THYROID ENLARGEMENT*

Abstract

Since struma lymphomatosa was first described by Hashimoto (1) in 1912, there has been increasing opinion that this disease is not a true thyroiditis (2–9). The purpose of this paper is to present clinical, physiologic, biochemical, pathologic and therapeutic observations to substantiate the belief that struma lymphomatosa is idiopathic primary failure of the thyroid cells themselves with compensatory hyperplasia and secondary lymphocytic infiltration and fibrosis.