The effect of methimazole on the oxidant and antioxidant system in patients with hyperthyroidism

The present study was designed to evaluate the changes in the plasma lipid peroxidation and antioxidant system in 15 adult volunteer patients in hyperthyroid and euthyroid states. In these patients, plasma concentrations of lipid peroxides were decreased and, ascorbic acid and vitamin E levels were significantly increased in euthyroid status in comparison to hyperthyroid status. A significant increase in the plasma GPx activity (P < 0.01) and a decrease in GST (P < 0.001) was observed after euthyroidism was sustained with methimazole therapy. In conclusion, hyperthyroidism tends to enhance lipid peroxide content and an increase in GST and decreases in GPx, vitamin E and ascorbic acid levels accompany to this change in the plasma. The achievement of euthyroidism led an improvement in these parameters. (C) 1998 The Italian Pharmacological Society

Parathyroid changes after high dose radioactive iodine in patients with thyroid cancer

The study aimed to investigate the effect of high dose radioactive iodine (RAI) on parathyroid function in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer

BRAF(V600E) mutation in Turkish patients with papillary thyroid cancer: strong correlation with indicators of tumor aggressiveness

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) constitutes more than 90 % of the thyroid cancers. MAP kinase/ERK pathway plays an important role in the development of several cancers. BRAF which is a member of Raf-kinase family activates this way. BRAF gene activating mutations lead to neoplastic transformation in thyroid follicle cells. In PTC, this mutation itself is a poor prognostic sign independent of other clinicopathological characteristics. We evaluated BRAF(V600E) mutation and clinical-pathological characteristics in Turkish population with PTC. We assessed 109 patients with PTC (88 female, 21 male). The average age was 38.7 +/- A 9.9 (17-71). BRAF(V600E) mutation was detected using polymerase chain reaction and fluorescent melting curve analysis. The results show that BRAF(V600E) mutation rate was found in 39.45 % of our patients. We observed that BRAF(V600E) mutation was significantly higher in men, in tumors larger than 1 cm in size, and in patients with classical PTC. Moreover, statistically significant correlations of BRAF(V600E) with indicators of tumor aggressiveness such as thyroid capsular invasion, multifocality, lymph node metastasis, and extrathyroidal spread were found. Patient groups below and over the age of 45 did not differ in mutation frequency. Patients with micro-PTC were evaluated separately, it was found that BRAF(V600E) mutation was more frequent in the classic type and that lymph node metastasis rate significantly increased when the mutation was present. We concluded that BRAF(V600E) was correlated with indicators of tumor aggressiveness in our study population. This fact is taken into consideration in treatment and follow-up of our patients with PTC and positive BRAF(V600E) mutation