Most of the patients of thyroid gland disease are presented with complaint of neck swelling in the midline or side of the neck and sometime with dysphagia and hoarseness of the voice.

Thyroid ultrasound is one of the fundamental and essential diagnostic test of this organ. The examination is conducted using ultrasonic scanner, that consists of linear probe with high frequency. Highresolution ultrasonography has improved in the past few years and has become a very valuable in diagnosis of the diseases of thyroid gland. Ultrasonography of the thyroid is the examination of very high cognitive value, which is mainly due to superficial location of the organ. Ultrasonic waves penetrate the thyroid easily, enabling the assessment of changes in its flesh. Additionally, color-coded Doppler allows the assessment of organ vascularization or individual lesions within it. After clinical examination plays key role in evaluation of thyroid lesions.

Nodular thyroid diseases are the most common cause of thyroid enlargement. Colloid multinodular goiter is the most common among all thyroid nodular diseases. Incidence of all thyroid diseases is higher in females than males. By means of ultrasonography the topography of the thyroid, its volume, structure, flesh and spilled focal recognize changes (nodules) of the thyroid can be recognized.

Ultrasonography also guides a proper fine needle aspiration biopsy. Fine needle aspiration biopsy has now become the method of choice for obtaining samples of thyroid tissue. The procedure is technically quite simple. When performed properly, the testing has a false negative rate of less than 5 %. This means that a positive finding, such as cancer, will be missed fewer than five times out of 100.

In this review, thyroid anatomy, gland pathologies, radiologic approach (mostly ultrasonographic) and radiologic findings were described.

Keywords: thyroid gland pathologies, thyroid nodules, thyroid cancer, thyroid ultrasound