The nodule was not what anyone was looking for. A 63-year-old woman with atrial fibrillation was having an ultrasound of her carotid arteries when the scan picked up something in the right lobe of her thyroid.
Higher-resolution imaging described a solid, hypoechoic lesion classified as EU-TIRADS 4, a category carrying intermediate suspicion of malignancy. Fine-needle aspiration came back inconclusive. She proceeded to a right lobectomy with isthmectomy, and only then did anyone learn what she actually had.
