[Evanescent toxic thyroid adenoma. Possible role of phenylpropanolamine]

A patient with a toxic adenoma, already reduced in size by TSH, presented on the third day after treatment of a common cold by phenylpropanolomine, a severe pain in the thyroid gland. 4 weeks later, the nodule, which measured 3 x 4 cm. had clinically disappeared and the scan returned to normal. The disappearance 5 months later of the antithyroid antibodies confirmed the cure. Catecholamines, stimulating the production of thyroid hormone and producing temporary ischemia of the gland, phenylpropanolamine, a sympathomimetic drug, may have caused hemorrhagic necrosis of the adenoma and its disappearance.