[Diagnostic capability of carcinoembryonic antigen elevation].

Introduction: There is little information on the oncologic diagnostic accuracy of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels more than 3-fold above normal.

Objetives: To determine the prevalence of underlying cancer in patients with mild CEA elevation and the mean cost per patient of CEA determination.

Methods: A retrospective study was carried out in all patients with CEA elevation (3-10 ng/ml) and suspicion of cancer referred to the gastroenterology or internal medicine outpatient units from 2001 to 2007.

Thyroid function during pregnancy and the postpartum period: iodine metabolism and disease states.

Objective: To review various aspects of thyroid function during and early after pregnancy.

Methods: We discuss biochemical and potential pathologic changes in the thyroid associated with the gestational and postpartum periods.

Results: Urinary iodine excretion during the last trimester of gestation in healthy euthyroid women shows that, in areas with mild iodine intake, iodine supplementation is necessary during pregnancy and the postpartum period.

Autoimmune thyroid disease and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus during pregnancy and post partum.

The aim of this study was to assess thyroid dysfunction and autoimmunity in pregnant insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) women during pregnancy and early post partum. Fifteen pregnant IDDM women and 77 healthy pregnant women were studied. Free T4, TSH, TPO-Ab and Tg-Ab were assayed during the first and third trimester of pregnancy and 3 months post partum.

Reclassification after delivery of diabetes in pregnancy.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) constitutes a risk factor for the development of non insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). The search for parameters to provide discrimination between a high risk and a low risk for future development of NIDDM is today the aim of many investigations. The absence or presence of several factors such as glycemia during pregnancy and post partum, the need for insulin treatment, disorders of the pancreatic insulin secretion, the number of pregnancies, maternal obesity, the early diagnosis of GDM, the family history of diabetes mellitus, the race and immune disorders give rise to a very high relative risk (RR) of developing NIDDM.