[Plasma tumor markers (calcitonin and carcinoembryonic antigen) in medullary thyroid cancers].

The authors have studied 43 patients operated on for medullary thyroïd carcinoma. Plasma calcitonin was measured regularly in all patients, while carcinoembryonic antigen assay was performed in only 30 patients. Calcitonin assay was found to be useful for preoperative diagnosis of medullary carcinoma, and the level of plasma calcitonin appeared to be roughly correlated with tumor extension.

[Diagnosis of familial medullary cancers].

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is hereditary in 20 to 25% of cases. It is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. MTC can be considered as a sporadic form only after a clinical and biological survey of the two parents, siblings and children of the patient, using pentagastrin stimulation test.

[Immunohistochemical detection of calcitonin, ACTH, beta-MSH, beta-endorphin and somatostatin in medullary carcinoma of the thyroid. Immunoperoxidase study (PAP, ABC) of 10 cases].

Ten cases of Medullary carcinoma of Thyroid gland (MCT) were examined (two familial, eight sporadic) in patients with increased serum calcitonin levels and ranging age from 31 to 87 years. Immunocytochemical reactions were performed using Peroxidase-Antiperoxidase (PAP) complex and/or Avidin-Biotin-Peroxidase complex (ABC) by light microscopy on fixed tumorous specimens (10 cases) and additionally by electron microscopy (3 cases). The tumors displayed light microscopic features typical of MCT.

Calcitonin, somatostatin and ACTH immunoreactive cells in a case of familial bilateral thyroid medullary carcinoma.

Bilateral medullary carcinoma of the thyroid (MCT) was discovered in a symptomless patient of a high-risk MCT family. Raised serum calcitonin responding abnormally to pentagastrin led to a thyroidectomy. Grossly, the thyroid showed one nodule in the upper third of each lobe.

[Hypoparathyroidism in adults (author's transl)].

The authors studied the clinical characteristics of primary and post-operative hypoparathyroidism in 39 patients. Laboratory follow-up data were compared under two different treatment programs using either AT 10 or 25 Hydroxycholecalciferol (25 OHCC). Clinical analysis revealed the atypical characteristics of primary hypoparathyroidism.

[The spine in Recklinghausen's neurofibromatosis].

The authors have studied the various spinal manifestations of Rechlinghausen's disease. They observed static disorders, such as progressive and non progressive kyphoscoliosis, tumours outside the spinal cord but within the vertebral column of neurinoma type or meningiomas and intraspinal glial tumours. Pseudo-tumoral dystrophic malformations, together with diffuse osteo-dystrophy the skeleton were also observedmthe most interesting and rarest manifestation, as there are to date only 23 published cases, is festooning or vertebral scalloping, which may be demonstrated by tomographic examination and completed by the use of contrast media, e.