Relationship between the sonographic appearance of the thyroid and the clinical course and autoimmune activity of Graves' disease.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between thyroid echogenicity and clinical course/immunologic parameters in Graves' disease.

Methods: Two hundred and six outpatients with Graves' disease (31 men, 175 women; 46 +/- 23 years old) were studied with thyroid sonography and color Doppler sonography. Forty-five patients were treated for active hyperthyroidism, 161 were euthyroid (85 immediately before withdrawal of antithyroid drug at maintenance doses, 76 in stable remission after withdrawal of antithyroid treatment).

Thyroid nodules in Graves disease and the risk of thyroid carcinoma.

Background: The risk of thyroid carcinoma in patients with Graves disease has been particularly emphasized when nodules coexist with thyroid hyperplasia; a surgical approach has been suggested.

Objectives: To detect thyroid nodules early in patients with Graves disease and to evaluate the risk of carcinoma.

Methods: The study group included 315 consecutive outpatients with Graves hyperthyroidism not previously treated with surgery or radioiodine therapy.

Reduction of renal cortical blood flow assessed by Doppler in cirrhotic patients with refractory ascites.

The usefulness in cirrhotic patients of hemodynamic measurements by Doppler ultrasonography (US) is still not defined. We investigated the relationships between Doppler measurements and the severity of ascites. Portal blood flow velocity and volume, and hepatic and renal arterial resistance indexes (RI) were measured in 57 cirrhotic patients (19 without ascites, 28 with responsive ascites, and 10 with refractory ascites) and 15 healthy controls.

Thyroid vascularization by color doppler ultrasonography in Graves' disease. Changes related to different phases and to the long-term outcome of the disease.

To investigate possible correlations between thyroid vascularization and activity of Graves' disease, we measured blood flow (TBF) at the inferior thyroid artery and intraparenchymal vascularization (number of vessels per square centimeter) by color Doppler ultrasonography (CDU) on Graves' patients at different phases of the disease. We studied 88 patients cross sectionally: 22 untreated; 17 euthyroid after 6 months of methimazole; 49 euthyroid at drug withdrawal after 12 to 24 months of treatment. The patients of the latter group were followed up for 29.

Effect of iloprost infusion on the resistance index of renal vessels of patients with systemic sclerosis.

Objective: To investigate the effect of iloprost, a stable prostacycline analog, on kidney blood flow in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), using color flow Doppler sonography.

Methods: The acute effect of the drug was studied in 10 patients with SSc with elevated resistance index (RI) levels (all RI values reported are multiplied by 100). Iloprost was administered intravenously (2 ng/kg/min for a period of 8 h).