Pathology Outlines

Thyroid gland
General
Crystals

Author: Shahidul Islam, M.D., Ph.D. (see Authors page)

Revised: 14 February 2017, last major update March 2009

Copyright: (c) 2003-2017, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.

PubMed search: crystals [title] thyroid

Table of Contents

Definition / general | Microscopic (histologic) images

Cite this page: Crystals. PathologyOutlines.com website. http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/thyroidcrystals.html. Accessed July 15th, 2017.

Definition / general

Colloid often contains birefringent calcium oxalate crystals, particularly in nodular goiter but also other neoplasms, in both histologic sections and fine needle aspirates (Acta Cytol 1999;43:575)
Present in 79% of normal appearing thyroids at autopsy (Am J Clin Pathol 1987;87:443)
Crystals appear to be associated with inactive follicles (Am J Surg Pathol 1993;17:698)
Crystals also present after dialysis (Arch Pathol Lab Med 1979;103:58)
Useful in differentiating thyroid tissue from parathyroid tissue (no crystals) at frozen section (Am J Surg Pathol 2002;26:813)

Microscopic (histologic) images

Images hosted on PathOut server:

Calcium oxalate crystals

Courtesy of Andrey Bychkov, M.D., Ph.D.

Abundant calcium oxalate crystals

Follicular adenoma: calcium oxalate crystals

Calcium oxalate crystals in the colloid