Doctors reported that a teenager in Italy presented with the first known case of thyroiditis caused by the new coronavirus.
Coronavirus Can Infect, Inflame the Thyroid
FRIDAY, May 22, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- An Italian teenager may be the first known case of a painful thyroid infection caused by the new coronavirus, doctors report.
A research team from Pisa, in northern Italy, said the 18-year-old woman's thyroid became sore and enlarged a few weeks after testing positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus in late February. The condition, called thyroiditis, cleared up completely within a week after she was treated with the steroid prednisone.
Still, the doctors believe that "physicians should be alerted about the possibility of this additional clinical manifestation" tied to the new coronavirus, study leader Dr. Francesco Latrofa, an endocrinologist at the University Hospital of Pisa, said in a news release from the Endocrine Society. He and his colleagues published the findings May 21 in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.