De Quervain's thyroiditis diagnostic criteria
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Furqan M M. M.B.B.S[2]
Overview
There are no established criteria for the diagnosis of de Quervain’s thyroiditis but painful thyroid mass, decreased radioactive iodine uptake, elevated ESR, serum T3, and T4 are helpful in diagnosing de Quervain’s thyroiditis.
Diagnostic Criteria
There are no established criteria for the diagnosis of de Quervain’s thyroiditis but the following history and lab findings can lead to the diagnosis of de Quervain’s thyroiditis.[1]
- Painful thyroid swelling
- Elevated ESR
- Elevated serum T4, T3 in thyrotoxicosis
- Elevated thyroglobulin concentrations
- RAIU (Radioactive iodine uptake) near zero
Stepwise clinical diagnosis of de Quervain’s thyroiditis
The following flowchart describes the clinical approach to the diagnosis of de Quervain’s thyroiditis.
| Neck pain | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yes | No | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| RAIU* | Presenting symptoms and TFTs‡ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Increased | Decreased | Hyperthyroid | Hypothyroid | Euthyroid | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| RAIU* | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Suppurative thyroiditis | De Quervain’s thyroiditis | Increased | Decreased | Hashimoto’s thyroiditis | Riedel’s thyroiditis†† | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Grave’s disease† | Silent thyroiditis
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
‡TFT; Thyroid function tests(TSH, T4, and T3), †Grave’s disease is not a thyroiditis, *RAIU; Radioiodine uptake.††One third of Riedel’s thyroiditis presents with hypothyroidism.
Table modified from [2]
References
- ↑ De Groot LJ, Chrousos G, Dungan K, Feingold KR, Grossman A, Hershman JM, Koch C, Korbonits M, McLachlan R, New M, Purnell J, Rebar R, Singer F, Vinik A, Shrestha RT, Hennessey J. “Acute and Subacute, and Riedel’s Thyroiditis”. PMID 25905408.
- ↑ “Thyroiditis: Differential Diagnosis and Management – American Family Physician”.
© 2026 MyEClinic – IFTM Institut für Telematik in der Medizin GmbH