[Should thyroxine treatment be discontinued for four weeks before I(131) thyroid ablation?].

Background: It is a usual practice to discontinue thyroxine treatment for four weeks before (131)I ablation. Symptoms of hypothyroidism usually occur during this time. Use of rhTSH is a helpful alternative in some cases, but problems of availability of this agent during 2012 will limit its use.

Evaluation of chromogranin A determined by three different procedures in patients with benign diseases, neuroendocrine tumors and other malignancies.

Unlabelled: CgA is a tumor marker in NET's (neuroendocrine tumors) but different ranges of sensitivity and specificity according to the commercial assay kits used have been reported. Our aim was to compare three commercial available assay kits that use three different methodologies (IRMA, RIA and ELISA) to determine CgA, in a clinical setting: 52 healthy people, 98 patients with benign diseases, 94 patients with non-NET´s malignancies, 20 SCLC and in 79 patients with NET's.

Results: Using a cut-off with a 100% specificity in healthy people (6 nmol/L, 60 ng/ml, and 90 ng/ml, for RIA, ELISA and IRMA, respectively), abnormal serum concentrations of CgA were found in a high proportion of patients with renal failure (76.

Exendin-4 increases blood glucose levels acutely in rats by activation of the sympathetic nervous system.

Exendin-4 (Ex-4), an agonist of the glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R), shares many of the actions of GLP-1 on pancreatic islets, the central nervous system (CNS), and the gastrointestinal tract that mediates glucose homeostasis and food intake. Because Ex-4 has a much longer plasma half-life than GLP-1, it is an effective drug for reducing blood glucose levels in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Here, we report that acute administration of Ex-4, in relatively high doses, into either the peripheral circulation or the CNS, paradoxically increased blood glucose levels in rats.

[Assessment of the value of monitoring of PTH levels in the standard surgical management of patients with primary hyperparathyroidism].

Background And Objective: We decided to evaluate the predictive value of the intra-operative monitoring of PTH concentrations for the standard surgical management of primary hyperparathyroidism (PHP).

Patients And Method: 23 patients with PHP were included.

Results: When serum PTH values either at anaesthesia induction or at visualization-manipulation of the gland were compared with those values at ten minutes post-excision, we observed 20 cases which were true positive, 1 true negative and 2 false negative.