Washington: COVID-19 infection may cause subacute thyroiditis, according to a new case study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Subacute thyroiditis is an inflammatory thyroid disease characterized by neck pain and is usually preceded by an upper respiratory tract infection. It may be caused by a viral infection or a post-viral inflammatory reaction, and many viruses have been linked to the disease, reports The Endocrine Society.
“We reported the first case of subacute thyroiditis after SARS-CoV-2 infection,” said Francesco Latrofa, M.D., of the University Hospital of Pisa in Pisa, Italy. “Physicians should be alerted about the possibility of this additional clinical manifestation related to COVID-19.”
The clinicians examined an 18-year-old woman who was infected with COVID-19. She completely recovered from COVID-19, testing negative. A few days later, she started experiencing some additional symptoms like neck and thyroid pain, fever and an increased heart rate. She was sent back to the hospital where she was diagnosed with subacute thyroiditis. She had normal thyroid functioning and imaging just one month earlier.