UNLABELLED: Serum thyroglobulin (Tg) was measured in 429 patients with well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma, during thyroid hormone suppression therapy. 324 patients out of 429 were considered free of disease; 44 had only remnants in the thyroid bed; 61 had metastases, of them 40 were detected by TBS and 21 were nonfunctioning and were detected by other diagnostic procedures. Tg was measured by a RIA method in 257 patients and by an IRMA method in 277 patients. The correlation between the two methods was very good (r = 0.914) for values higher than 25 ng/ml with the RIA method. The cut-off limit to distinguish pathological from nonpathological values was considered the mean value found in the patients free of disease plus 2SD. The cut-off limit for the RIA method was 24.2 ng/ml and 3.0 ng/ml for the IRMA method. Of patients with high Tg levels 92% had metastases, either nodal or distant; only 8% had remnants in the thyroid bed. Tg levels were high in 80% of the patients with metastases, all but two of the patients with metastases and low Tg levels had nodal metastases. Moreover, Tg levels were high in 76% of the patients with metastases unable to take up radioiodine. IN CONCLUSION: patients with low levels of serum Tg during suppression therapy have a high probability of being free of disease, even though the presence of tumors cannot be excluded. On the other hand a value greater than the cut-off limit suggests the presence of metastases despite a negative scan.

Adenocarcinoma↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Clinical role of TSH binding inhibiting antibodies (TBIAb) assay.

Anti TSH-receptor antibodies (TBIAb) were measured by a radioreceptor assay in 277 patients with Graves' disease, 101 with autoimmune thyroiditis, 43 with autonomous adenoma, 15 with subacute thyroiditis, 15 with euthyroid ophthalmopathy, 155 with euthyroid multinodular goiter, 10 with amiodarone-induced hyperthyroidism and 2 with tumoral TSH hypersecretion. TBIAb were present at high titers in 74% of patients with untreated or relapsed Graves' disease and, at lower titers, in only 10% of patients who had recovered from Graves' disease, in 8% of patients with autoimmune thyroiditis and in 4% of patients with euthyroid goiter. TBIAb were absent in normal subjects as well as in the other groups studied. These findings suggest that TBIAb represent a specific marker of Graves' disease, particularly of the untreated form. Their presence in non Graves' patients may be considered expression of inactive or inhibiting antibodies.

Antibodies↗