Esophageal carcinoma masquerading as recurrent acute suppurative thyroiditis.

A 61-year-old woman had clinical features of acute suppurative thyroiditis that was recurrent and refractory to antibiotic therapy. The diagnosis of acute suppurative thyroiditis was established by a fine-needle aspiration biopsy procedure, yielding suppurative material from which anaerobic and aerobic bacteria grew. Subsequent investigation with a barium swallow study followed by esophagoscopy and biopsy confirmed extensive esophageal carcinoma with a fistulous tract extending into the perithyroidal region.