Potentiometric measurement of urinary iodine concentration in patients with thyroid diseases with and without previous exposure to non-radioactive iodine.

Background: Extensive application of measurement of urinary iodine concentration (UIC) in several benign and malignant thyroid diseases could profit by the availability of rapid and inexpensive measuring techniques. Aim of this study was to apply a simple and inexpensive commercially available potentiometric method for the quantification of UIC based on iodine-specific ion-selective electrodes (ISE) in patients with thyroid diseases.

Methods: This retrospective study included patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (n=286) and patients with hyperthyroidism of different etiologies (n=203).

Prognostic value of stress-gated 99m-technetium SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging: risk stratification of patients with multivessel coronary artery disease and prior coronary revascularization.

Background: This study assessed the prognostic value of stress-gated 99mTc-sestamibi myocardial perfusion SPECT (MPS) in patients with multivessel coronary artery disease (CAD) and prior revascularization according to the presence and severity of ischemia.

Methods And Results: We studied the outcome of 472 patients with multivessel CAD and prior revascularization (coronary angioplasty, 290 patients; bypass surgery, 182 patients), who underwent exercise or dipyridamole 99mTc-sestamibi MPS for evaluation of ischemia. Visual scoring of perfusion images used 20 segments and a 5-point scale.

Poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas: how much poorly differentiated is needed?

Background: Poorly differentiated (PD) carcinomas of the thyroid are conceptually situated between well-differentiated (papillary or follicular) carcinomas and anaplastic thyroid carcinomas. Although the morphologic criteria for PD tumors are well defined, it is not clear how much of a PD area besides a well-differentiated component in a given tumor is required to allow such a diagnosis.

Methods: We identified 42 patients suffering from thyroid carcinoma with an adverse clinical outcome.

[Differentiated thyroid carcinoma--essential for the practitioner].

Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DCT) is a rare carcinoma (incidence 8-12/100,000) with an excellent prognosis (five year survival of papillary thyroid carcinoma 95%). The presenting symptom of DCT is most frequently an indolent thyroid nodule, often discovered by chance at the occasion of a routine clinical examination. Rarely, DCT presents with a fixed ipsilateral cervical lymph node enlargement or a newly developed hoarseness of the voice.

Exacerbation of erythropoietic protoporphyria by hyperthyroidism.

Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) is a hereditary disorder caused by deficiency of ferrochelatase, the last enzyme in the heme biosynthetic pathway. The majority of EPP patients present with a clinical symptom of painful phototoxicity. Liver damage, the most serious complication of EPP, occurs in <5% of the patients.

Tumor response and clinical benefit in neuroendocrine tumors after 7.4 GBq (90)Y-DOTATOC.

Unlabelled: The aim of this prospective phase II study was to evaluate the tumor response of neuroendocrine tumors to high-dose targeted irradiation with 7.4 GBq/m(2) of the radiolabeled somatostatin analog (90)Y-1,4,7,10-tetra-azacyclododecan-4,7,10-tricarboxy-methyl-1-yl-acetyl-D-Phe-Tyr(3)-octreotide (DOTATOC). In addition, we investigated the clinical benefit of (90)Y-DOTATOC regarding the malignant carcinoid syndrome and tumor-associated pain.