Rituximab induces distinct intraorbital and intrathyroidal effects in one patient satisfactorily treated for Graves' ophthalmopathy.

Hyperthyroid Graves' disease (GD) is a B-cell-mediated disease caused by antibodies stimulating the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) receptor (TRAb). A proportion of patients (40-60%) present with an associated ophthalmopathy (TAO), a progressive inflammatory autoimmune disease of the retroorbital tissue. We thought that the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab (RTX), by inducing transient B-cell depletion, may potentially modify the active inflammatory phase of TAO.

Efficacy of rituximab treatment for thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy as a result of intraorbital B-cell depletion in one patient unresponsive to steroid immunosuppression.

One patient with Graves' hyperthyroidism and ophthalmopathy in its active phase and unresponsive to steroid, was treated with the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, rituximab (RTX), as part of an open study. The effect of RTX in the thyroid and the orbital tissues was studied. The ophthalmopathy responded to RTX therapy by ameliorating the eye signs with a decrease in the clinical activity score from 5 to 2 in 3 months, while the patient had peripheral B-cell depletion.

Onset of autoimmune hepatitis during intravenous steroid therapy for thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy in a patient with Hashimoto's thyroiditis: case report.

A 43-year-old woman with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT), euthyroid on levothyroxine since 1999, developed thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) in February 2002. She had involvement of the eye muscles, as shown by computed tomography (CT) scan. She was started on methylprednisolone pulse therapy 7.

[Clinical role of CT-guided transthoracic needle biopsy in the diagnosis of solitary pulmonary nodules].

Purpose: The aim of this prospective study was to assess the overall diagnostic accuracy of CT-guided transthoracic biopsy of solitary pulmonary nodules, to compare the reliability of the diagnosis of malignancy made at prebiopsy CT and to investigate the final clinical impact of cyto-histologic results.

Materials And Methods: A prospective study was carried out on 128 CT-guided transthoracic biopsies performed in 119 subjects with a solitary pulmonary nodule to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the method. The cyto-histologic diagnosis was then compared to the previous radiologic and CT diagnosis and to clinical outcome, to define the reliability of the previous CT diagnosis and the clinical impact of lung biopsy in relation to its risk.

[Computerized tomography and magnetic resonance in the diagnosis of recurrent rectal neoplasms: comparison of reliability and errors of both methods].

Our work was aimed at assessing the accuracy of CT and MRI in the early identification of postoperative recurrences of rectosigmoid cancer, quantifying false positive and false negative ratios and questionable findings. A homogeneous series of 50 patients submitted to surgery for primary rectosigmoid carcinoma was studied with both CT and MRI and followed-up for up to 2 years: local recurrences were observed in 15 patients (30%) which occurred within the first year of surgery in 67% of cases and were in extraluminal site in 86% of cases. CT appeared to be a reliable and highly sensitive screening method, with 82% sensitivity: only 2 false negatives were observed, which were nevertheless followed-up because CT had yielded questionable, and not negative, findings.