A case with diffuse sclerosing variant of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid: characteristic features on ultrasonography.

We describe the case of a patient who had a diffuse sclerosing variant of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid with characteristic features on ultrasonography. Most papillary thyroid carcinomas can be easily recognized and diagnosed by ultrasonography. The thyroid carcinoma in this patient, however, showed diffuse enlargement of the thyroid without formation of any masses, and it had hypoechoic and heterogeneous internal echoes, which contained fine and multiple high-echo spots. Multiple lymph nodes were found to be swollen in the bilateral jugular chains on B-mode ultrasonography. It is very important that this type of papillary carcinoma with characteristic clinical features be detected by careful examination.