Surgery of thyroid cancer in children and adolescents.

Background: Thyroid carcinoma in young patients under the age of 20 years is uncommon. Because of the slow progression of this disease, there is still a great deal of debate as to which operation strategy is best.

Methods: We undertook a retrospective study of 61 patients under 20 years of age with thyroid cancer treated at our institute between 1952 and 1995.

Cancer of the thyroid in children and adolescents.

Thyroid cancer is a rare but intriguing malignancy when it occurs in childhood and adolescence. In this retrospective study 58 young patients with thyroid cancer treated at the Rabin Medical Centre are presented. We found that thyroid carcinoma in children presented in a more advanced stage than in adults, and the incidence of regional metastases at the time of presentation is higher.

Amiodarone-induced thyroid gland dysfunction.

Of a population of 400 patients treated with amiodarone, 97 underwent thyroid function evaluation. Of these, 20 patients proved to be thyrotoxic and 16 hypothyroid. In thyrotoxic patients, symptoms developed 2 to 36 months after starting treatment with amiodarone, the most specific laboratory finding being a high total T3 (TT3).

Factors affecting the labeling of human fibrinogen with 99mTc in vitro.

The preparation of [99mTc]fibrinogen is described. The following factors which could affect the quality of this preparation were studied: pH, SnCl2 and protein concentrations, pre- and post-labeling incubation times and labeling temperature. A 90% labeling yield was achieved by incubating fibrinogen with SnCl2 at pH 9.

Organizing pneumonia-like process: an unusual observation in steroid responsive cases with features of chronic interstitial pneumonia.

Two patients under long-term surveillance showed the similar clinical features of low-grade fever, scanty productive cough, progressive dyspnea, and roentgenologic findings of lung infiltrates. Both patients responded only to systemic corticosteroid therapy and suffered relapses when it was discontinued. In one patient, who was found to be IgA-deficient, the pulmonary disease followed an episode of subacute thyroiditis; in this patient the intake of cephalosporin and subsequent rechallenge with the drug aggravated the disease.