Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Thyroid FNAB is the gold standard to discriminate malignant from benign thyroid nodules. However, inadequate cytology ranges from 1 to 20% (up to 33.6%) in different settings and could depend on several factors, including the operator’s skills.Aim: To evaluate the effect of operator’s experience on US-FNAB diagnostic adequacy we reviewed 7029 US-FNABs performed from January 2006 to March 2009.Materials and M...

Introduction: There is no consensus about the usefulness of repeating the US-FNAB during the follow-up of nodules when a benign (Thy2) or indeterminate (Thy3) report is obtained at first US-FNAB.Aim of the study: To investigate the clinical value of repeating US-FNAB after a previous adequate Thy2 or Thy3 US-FNAB.Methods: We reviewed the US-FNABs performed from 2006 to 2009. All clinical data of the patients were collected and anal...

Background: Patients thyroidectomized for thyroid cancer need variable doses of levothyroxine (LT4) to obtain TSH suppression. A predetermined thyroid function set-point for each individual has been hypothesized, suggesting a genetic influence in the regulation of pituitary-thyroid axis. We hypothesized of the TRHR gene could be associated with a different hypothalamo-pituitary sensitivity to the negative feedback of the thyroid hormones.<p class=...

Introduction: US-FNAB is the most cost/effective and accurate diagnostic procedure for the evaluation of thyroid nodules. In the clinic, the nursing assistance is not always available for the US-FNAB procedure in all endocrinological centers and its value remains to be established.Aim of the Study: To demonstrate the role of nursing assistance in US-FNAB procedures in improving the efficiency of this procedure.Methods: All clinical...

Context. The routine measurement of serum calcitonin (CT) has been proposed for patients with nodular goiter (NG), to detect unsuspected medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) before surgery. Objective To assess the prevalence of hypercalcitoninemia and MTC in NG patients; to compare the ability of CT measurement and fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) to predict MTC; to identify age groups of NG patients who should be better candidates than others to undergo routine measurement...