Thyroid isthmus

Looks like

A narrow band of thyroid tissue joining the right and left lobes, lying over the 2nd to 4th rings of the windpipe. A thin pyramidal lobe sometimes rises from it.

What it does

Makes thyroid hormone like the rest of the gland.

Keeping it well

It is cut or pushed aside when a surgical tracheostomy is made. Nodules here are easily felt and seen on ultrasound.

Related conditions

• Adrenal insufficiency (Addison's)
• Congenital hypothyroidism
• Down syndrome (trisomy 21)
• Hyperthyroidism & Graves' disease
• Hypothyroidism
• Menopause & perimenopause
• Polycystic ovary syndrome
• Postnatal depression
• Thyroid cancer
• Thyroid nodules & goitre
• Thyroiditis (Hashimoto's & subacute)
• Turner syndrome
• Type 1 diabetes