The risk of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is related to serum TSH, and the development of thyroid autonomy by reducing TSH levels decreases the frequency of PTC in patients with nodular goiter. Our aim was to investigate the effect of L-thyroxine (LT(4)) on the frequency of PTC diagnosed by cytology in a large series of patients with nodular goiter untreated (n=20 055) or treated with L-T(4) (...

PREOPERATIVE DIAGNOSTIC INVESTIGATIONS OF NODULAR GOITER ARE BASED ON TWO MAIN EXAMINATIONS: ultrasonography of the thyroid gland and ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy. So far, FNAB has been the best method for the differentiation of nodules, but in some cases it fails to produce a conclusive diagnosis. Some of the biopsies do not provide enough material to establish the diagnosis...

OBJECTIVE To determine the usefulness of parathyroid hormone (PTH) measurement in needle aspirates of a suspicious neck mass to confirm its parathyroid nature in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. METHODS Thirty-three patients with surgically proved primary hyperparathyroidism were submitted to neck ultrasound (US), parathyroid scintigraphy, and assay of PTH in the aspirate (PTHa) of ...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate procalcitonin (PCT) utility as a marker of medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). MATERIAL AND METHODS Calcitonin (CT) and PCT levels were measured in MTC patients and patients with serious bacterial infections. 70 patients were enrolled in the study: 6 MTC active patients: 4 with disseminated, unreoperable disease and 2 re-operated patients, in whom markers were checked befor...

INTRODUCTION Benign cervical goiters rarely cause acute airway obstruction. CASE PRESENTATION We report the case of a 64-year-old woman of African descent who presented with acute shortness of breath. She required immediate intubation and later a total thyroidectomy for a benign cervical multi-nodular goiter with no retrosternal tracheal compression. CONCLUSION Benign multi-nodular goiters ...

Serum anti-thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) and anti-thyroid microsomal antibody (McAb) in 213 cases of thyroid disorders and 32 cases of non-thyroid disorders were studied. The antibodies were checked by commercial tanned red cell hemagglutination kits (Thymune-T and Thymune-M) purchased from Wellcome Reagents, Limited, England. The positive rates of TgAb and McAb in patients with untreated toxic...

A patient initially presented with an autonomously functioning right thyroid nodule and transient hyperthyroidism which lasted for a few months. Several months after resolution of thyrotoxicosis, the patient had a recurrent episode of hyperthyroidism and was found to have a left hot nodule. The right hyperfunctioning nodule had become cold on scintigraphy, and its aspiration revealed haemorrhag...

OBJECTIVE The expression of two iodide transporters, the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) and pendrin, was analyzed in thyroid tissues of patients with toxic multinodular goiter (TMNG) and non-toxic multinodular goiter (MNG). METHODS The levels of NIS and pendrin proteins were analyzed in total protein extracts from nodular and non-nodular tissues by Western blot. RESULTS In tissue samples fro...

Nuclear medicine is directly involved in both the diagnosis and treatment of benign thyroid disease, which requires an understanding of the pathophysiology and management of thyroid disorders in addition to expertise in nuclear methodology. Thyroid uptake and imaging, the principal nuclear tests in thyroid disease, may be used as follows: (1) Differential diagnosis of hyperthyroidism: A very lo...