10635              THYROGLOSSAL CYST

This was an incidental finding in a man aged 84 who died of myocardial infarction.

The specimen shows a large thinwalled thyroglossal cyst 5 cms in diameter lying approximately in the midline immediately above the thyroid isthmus.  The thyroid itself is small and rather fibrous.

Comment: Thyroglossal cysts form from remnants of the thyroglossal tract which extends from the isthmus of the thyroid to the base of the tongue.