Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Glucose metabolism derangements (GMD) and thyroid nodules (TN) are the most frequent endocrine disorders. A relationship between these conditions has been suggested, but data are still controversial and no evidence was reported regarding sex differences.Aim: To evaluate the distribution of impaired fasting glucose (IFG), normal glucose tolerance (NGT), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and TN according to sex.<p cla...

BackgroundPapillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most frequent thyroid malignant neoplasm. American Thyroid Association (ATA) guidelines don’t specify how to follow-up low-risk PTC patients not receiving radioiodine therapy (RAI) after total thyroidectomy (TT). Indeed, there is no consensus among authors regarding the interpretation of thyroglobulin (TG) levels and ultrasound neck (US) findings during follow-up in these settings.<p class="abst...

Many studies demonstrated that somatic BRAF gene mutation analysis increases diagnostic accuracy for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), even from very small samples. The gold standard for point mutations research is direct sequencing, that implies DNA extraction, PCR with specific primers, sequencing reaction and run on an automatic sequencer. This is an expensive and time consuming method, and the possible contamination with wild-type DNA not coming from the nodule significan...

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) represents the majority of differentiated thyroid cancers, presenting in 29–83% of cases the activating BRAF V600E mutation. The aim of our study was to analyse the influence of BRAF V600E mutation analysis on diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration biopsies (FNAB) in clinically unsuspected thyroid nodules. We therefore enrolled 496 patients (383 females, 113 males; mean age 52 years), for a total of 671 samples. FNAB were evaluated by...

Introduction: Accurately discern malignant from benign nodules sometimes represents a real challenge. Fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy, ultrasound and The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology (BSRTC) allow for accurate diagnosis in 60–80% of all nodules. However, 10–20% of thyroid FNAs yield an indeterminate cytology (BSRTC III and IV categories). The real malignancy rate of BSRTC III category is difficult to ascertain because histopathological anal...

Follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) is the second most common thyroid malignant epithelial tumor. It is clinically asymptomatic, usually represented by a single nodule, less often multiple, with origin from thyroid follicular epithelial cells. Despite its well-differentiated characteristics, FTC may develop distant metastases through hematogenous dissemination. The molecular alterations involved in the pathogenesis of follicular neoplasia are not completely known. Recent studie...