This course will focus on practical issues in the diagnosis of thyroid and parathyroid disease. The following topics will be addressed: papillary and follicular patterned thyroid lesions, C-cell lesions and mimics and disorders of the parathyroid glands. The discussion will focus on the preoperative assessment of these lesions including clinical features, radiologic investigations (ultrasound, Sestamibi scans), and fine needle aspiration biopsies (on-site evaluation, cytopreparations); the intraoperative evaluation of thyroid and parathyroid tumors, and the final histologic diagnoses, staging and the templatable final report (including the new TNM classification). A description of the uses and pitfalls of specialized techniques including immunostains and molecular markers will be discussed. The course is specifically aimed at the practicing pathologist who is responsible for the diagnosis of these lesions; the ancillary techniques and the information gained from them will be presented to enhance understanding of the diseases and tumors and to give guidance as to how these approaches may be of assistance in daily practice.

A CD of representative images with case histories will be available for mailing to pre-registrants. An extensive syllabus will be distributed at the course. After the meeting a CD of additional materials will be mailed to all registrants for the course.