A different approach to cystinosis: ultrasound, doppler, and shear wave elastography findings of thyroid gland

BACKGROUND: While thyroid dysfunction develops in about 50% of untreated children with cystinosis, there is no data about how the sonography of thyroid tissue appears in this disease. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the sonographic appearance, color doppler findings in this disease and to evaluate how cystine crystal accumulation affect tissue stiffness using shear wave elastography (SWE). METHODS: Sixteen children diagnosed with cystinosis and a control group consisting of 34 healthy children were included in this study. B mode ultrasound, color doppler imaging and real-time SWE of thyroid tissue were performed. RESULTS: Ultrasound imaging revealed lower echogenicity and diffuse heterogeneous echotexture in 7 of the 16 cystinosis patients. Thyroid gland volumes were lower in cystinosis patients (p 0.005). Doppler ultrasound demonstrated increased flow in 8 patients. On SWE, the thyroid tissue stiffness was established to be lower in patients compared to healthy children (p 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study evaluating thyroid gland B mode, color doppler ultrasonography, and SWE findings in cystinosis. Our findings indicate that cysteamine treatment still cannot completely prevent the disease infiltration process of thyroid gland. The other important finding—that thyroid tissue stiffness was established to be lower than that of the controls—also demonstrates the ongoing disease infiltration process.