At the present time the different clinical manifestations produced by various pathologic changes in the thyroid gland cannot be considered as well defined, standardized diseases the classification of which is beyond all criticism. Observations recorded in the modern literature on the various kinds of inflammation and dysfunction of this gland are varied and do not always necessarily correspond clinically and anatomically. These diverse observations oppose at times the attempt to classify the pathologic conditions of the thyroid gland. So it is the purpose of this paper to present a peculiar case of chronic thyroiditis which does not seem to fit the generally known description.
HISTORICAL REVIEW
In 1896 Riedel1 reported a disease which until then had been unknown, a new form of "inflammatory condition in which fibrosis eventually dominates the picture" (Joll2). The patient, a man aged 40, had shown the symptoms of life-threatening dysphonia and asphyxia, hoarseness