Parathyroid Retrospective Analysis of Neoplasms Incidence (pTRANI Study): An Italian Multicenter Study on Parathyroid Carcinoma and Atypical Parathyroid Tumour

Background: Parathyroid cancer (PC) is a rare sporadic or hereditary malignancy whose histologic features were redefined with the 2022 WHO classification. A total of 24 Italian institutions designed this multicenter study to specify PC incidence, describe its clinical, functional, and imaging characteristics and improve its differentiation from the atypical parathyroid tumour (APT). Methods: All relevant information was collected about PC and APT patients treated between 2009 and 2021. Results: Among 8361 parathyroidectomies, 351 patients (mean age 59.0 ± 14.5; F = 210, 59.8%) were divided into the APT (n = 226, 2.8%) and PC group (n = 125, 1.5%). PC showed significantly higher rates (p < 0.05) of bone involvement, abdominal, and neurological symptoms than APT (48.8% vs. 35.0%, 17.6% vs. 7.1%, 13.6% vs. 5.3%, respectively). Ultrasound (US) diameter >3 cm (30.9% vs. 19.3%, p = 0.049) was significantly more common in the PC. A significantly higher frequency of local recurrences was observed in the PC (8.0% vs. 2.7%, p = 0.022). Mortality due to consequences of cancer or uncontrolled hyperparathyroidism was 3.3%. Conclusions: Symptomatic hyperparathyroidism, high PTH and albumin-corrected serum calcium values, and a US diameter >3 cm may be considered features differentiating PC from APT. 2022 WHO criteria did not impact the diagnosis

Breast neuroendocrine tumors multidisciplinary treatment. Single experience in our Centre

Introduction: Breast Neuroendocrine Tumours (B-NETs) are rare entities; the incidence in Italy is about 1%. The great variability of manifestations and localizations made it very interested in studying. Only few cases are available in literature; actually this pathology is more difficult to treat because specific guidelines don’t exist for the treatment of primary metastatic NETs.Case presentation: The case concerns a 48-year-old woman with a diagnosis of Breast Neuroendocrine Tumours (B-NET). She was treated with multidisciplinary approach; the patient started neoadjuvant chemotherapy and then she underwent right radical mastectomy. No further chemotherapy treatment was performed. In the last ten years, no signs of local recurrence or metastases were observed.Conclusion: The presented case is very characteristic for its multidisciplinary approach.</p

Nonalpine Thyroid Angiosarcoma in a Patient with Hashimoto Thyroiditis

Thyroid angiosarcoma is an uncommon thyroid carcinoma and its incidence is the highest in the European Alpine regions. Thyroid angiosarcoma is also a very aggressive tumor that can rapidly spread to the cervical lymph nodes, lungs, and brain or can metastasize to the duodenum, small boewl, and large bowel. Although it is histologically well defined, clear-cut separation between the angiosarcoma and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is difficult. A 49-year-old Caucasian female patient, born and resident in Southern Italy (Calabria), in an iodine-sufficient area, was admitted to the Surgery Department because she presented with a painless mass in the anterior region of neck enlarged rapidly in the last three months. After total thyroidectomy and right cervical lymphadenectomy, postoperative histological examination revealed the presence of a thyroid angiosarcoma with positive staining for CD31 and for both Factor VIII-related antigen and Vimentin and only partially positive for staining pancytokeratin and presence of metastasis in cervical, supraclavicular, mediastinal and paratracheal lymph nodes. The patient started adjuvant chemotherapy and she was treated for 6 cycles with Doxorubicin, Dacarbazine, Ifosfamide, and Mesna (MAID). After 22 months from surgery, the patient is still alive without both local and systemic recurrence of the disease

Preoperative diagnosis of incidental carcinoma in multinodular goitre by means of electromagnetic interactions

In the evaluation of multinodular goitre, finding a malignant neoplasia is often an unexpected result of the histological diagnosis. TRIMprob (Tissue Resonance Interaction Method Probe) is a portable system for non-invasive diagnosis, that utilises the different electromagnetic properties of healthy and pathological tissues, producing a low-power magnetic field that interacts with the molecular structure of tissues. The interference levels are detected by a receiver device and are elaborated with software in a graph consisting of 3 easily interpretable bands. The objective of our study was to assess the usefulness of the TRIMprob system in the preoperative diagnosis of carcinoma in patients with multinodular goitre. Over the period from January 2005 to March 2006 we used TRIMprob to screen 51 patients with a clinical diagnosis of multinodular goitre, later operated on by total thyroidectomy. We then compared the TRIMprob response with the histological diagnosis on the surgical specimen. The TRIMprob results suggested 46 cases compatible with non-malignant goitre and 5 suspected cancers. The final histological diagnosis confirmed these results with 46 cases of multinodular goitre and 5 papillary carcinomas. The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of the procedure were all 100%. On the basis of these preliminary results, TRIMprob seems to be a highly accurate method for the detection of suspected carcinomas in the context of multinodular goitre. If these results are confirmed, new prospects could be opened up in the diagnosis of thyroid diseases

Hypocalcaemia after total thyroidectomy: Could intact parathyroid hormone be a predictive factor for transient postoperative hypocalcemia?

Background Hypocalcemia, the most common complication of thyroidectomy, is a transient condition in up to 27% of patients and a permanent condition approximately 1% of patients. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate reliability of postoperative intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) assessment for predicting clinically relevant postthyroidectomy hypocalcemia for a safe early discharge of patients with no overtreatment. Methods Seventy-five consecutive patients (age 51 ± 13 years [mean ± SD]) undergoing total or completion thyroidectomy with no concomitant parathyroid diseases or renal failure were included in the present study. Serum iPTH level was determined before and 2 hours after thyroidectomy. Serum calcium concentration was determined 1 day before and 2 days postoperatively. Results The occurrence of postoperative hypocalcemia was correlated both with the absolute and relative iPTH decrease, determined as a ratio of the preoperative value (P <.0001). There was a greater difference in relative decrease in iPTH between patients remaining normocalcemic and those with hypocalcemia present on the second postoperative day. Hypocalcemic patients on the second postoperative day had a 62% relative decrease in iPTH 2 hours after thyroidectomy. Conclusion The relative decrease in serum iPTH was greater in patients with hypocalcemia arising on the second postoperative day rather than in patients who remained normocalcemic. The relative decrease in iPTH determined 2 hours after total thyroidectomy together with the serum calcium concentration 24 hours after thyroidectomy proved to be useful predictors of sustained hypocalcemia and might change the clinical management of patients after thyroid surgery to support a longer hospitalization in these selected patients

Total thyroidectomy vs completion thyroidectomy for thyroid nodules with indeterminate cytology/follicular proliferation. A single centre experience.

Background Despite total thyroidectomy (TT) is the most practiced procedure for a preoperatively diagnosed neoplastic lesion, according to the ATA guidelines, many surgeons perform completion thyroidectomy (CT) after hemithyroidectomy for patients with preoperative follicular proliferation/indeterminate cytology who are diagnosed with malignancy. CT has a higher complication rate than the primary procedure. The primary endpoint of our study is to compare the morbidity rate after CT with that after primary TT in patients with follicular proliferation/indeterminate cytology. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 237 patients who underwent thyroid surgery from 2009 to 2018 at our institution. We recruited only patients with follicular proliferation/indeterminate cytology and excluded those undergoing lymphadenectomies and thyroidectomies for benign pathology and staged thyroidectomies after intraoperative documentation of a RLN lesion. One hundred eighty-six of these patients underwent TT, and fifty-one underwent CT for the detection of differentiated thyroid cancer at the histological exam. Results No differences were found in the total complication rates between the two groups (OR 0,76, 95% CI 0.35–1.65, P = 0.49). We did not find any significant differences in the subgroup analysis. In particular, no significant differences were identified for transient hypocalcaemia (OR 1.17, 95% CI 0.44–3.11; P = 0,74), permanent hypocalcaemia (OR 1.04, 95% CI 0.21–5.18; P = 0,95), transient unilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.21–2.81; P = 0,16), permanent unilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy (OR 1.48, 95% CI 0.28–7.85; P = 0,61), and haematoma (OR 1,84, 95% CI 0,16-20,71; P = 0,61). Conclusions CT following hemithyroidectomy can be performed with acceptable morbidity in patients with thyroid nodules with preoperative indeterminate cytology/follicular proliferation

Hypocalcemia following thyroid surgery: incidence and risk factors. A longitudinal multicenter study comprising 2,631 patients.

Background Postoperative hypocalcemia is the most frequent complication of total thyroidectomy. It may have a delayed onset, and therefore delays the discharge from the hospital, requiring calcium replacement therapy to alleviate clinical symptoms. Methods During a 7-months period, 2631 consecutive patients undergoing primary or completion thyroidectomy were prospectively followed up and underwent analysis regarding postoperative hypoparathyroidism. Data were prospectively collected by questionnaires from 39 Italian endocrine surgery units affiliated to the Italian Endocrine Surgery Units Association (Club delle Unità di EndocrinoChirurgia - UEC), where thyroid surgery is routinely performed. Results The incidence of hypoparathyroidism was 28,8% (757 patients), including transient hypocalcemia (27,9%) and permanent hypocalcemia (0,9%). The rate of asymptomatic hypocalcemia was 70,80%. The incidence of permanent hypocalcemia was higher in the symptomatic hypocalcemia group (7,5%) than in asymptomatic one (1,5%). Female patients experienced a transient postoperative hypocalcemia more frequently than male patients (29.7% and 21.2% respectively; p <.0001). The percentage developing hypocalcemia in patients in which parathyroid glands were intraoperatively identified and preserved was higher than in the patients in which the identification of parathyroid glands was not achived (29,2% versus 18,7%, p<0.01). Conclusions This prospective study confirmed the main risk factors for postoperative hypocalcemia: thyroid cancer, nodal dissection and female gender. It farther showed that identifying parathyroids has an important role to prevent permanent hypocalcemia though with a higher risk of transient hypocalcemia. In order to a proper information of patient this issues have to be addressed in a suitable informed consent

Low-Dose of Rocuronium During Thyroid Surgery: Effects on Intraoperative Nerve-Monitoring and Intubation

Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring (IONM) reduces the incidence of Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve (RLN) injuries during thyroid surgery. To preserve nerve function, long acting neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBA) should be avoided. However, NMBA are necessary for laryngoscopy and endotracheal intubation. We designed this double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to assess if a low-dose of rocuronium given at intubation would affect the IONM data recorded before the thyroid dissection

Malignancy Analyses of Thyroid Nodules in Patients Subjected to Surgery with Cytological- and Ultrasound-Based Risk Stratification Systems

The fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology is the gold standard for the preoperative diagnosis of thyroid cancer. However, up to 30% of FNA examinations yield nondiagnostic or indeterminate results and this complicates patient management. Clinical features and ultrasound (US) patterns, including US risk stratification systems, could be useful in the preoperative diagnostic workup and prediction of malignancy, but the evidences are not univocal. Methods: 400 consecutive patients subjected to thyroid surgery were retrospectively enrolled at our institution in Calabria, Southern Italy. Preoperative US and FNA cytological descriptions, formulated according to the &ldquo;Italian consensus for reporting thyroid fine-needle aspiration cytology&rdquo; (ICCRTC) classification and three US risk stratification systems (those developed by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, American College of Endocrinology and Associazione Medici Endocrinologi (AACE/ACE/AME), American Thyroid Association (ATA), and American College of Radiology (ACR-TIRADS)), were collected, along with histological results. Results: 147 thyroid cancer cases, in large majority papillary carcinomas, were detected on final histological examination. Almost two-thirds of patients subjected to thyroid surgery for either benign or malignant lesions were female. Patient&rsquo;s age &le;20 years and between 21&ndash;30 years were clinical features associated with increased risk of thyroid cancer in logistic regression analyses. US features associated with thyroid cancer included irregular margins, solid composition, microcalcifications, and marked hypoechogenicity. The AACE/ACE/AME, ATA, and ACR-TIRADS risk categories, corresponding to specific US patterns, were strong predictors of malignancy in both genders, but not in nodules with indeterminate cytology. A measured difference between the longitudinal (L) and the anteroposterior (AP) diameter &gt;5 mm, a proxy for a parallel-oriented oval shape of a nodule, emerged as a robust protective factor against thyroid cancer (OR 0.288 (95%CI 0.817&ndash;0.443); p &lt; 0.001), regardless of cytological risk. Conclusions: Some, but not all, well-established predictors of TC have been confirmed in this study. Controversy surrounds the diagnostic performance of US risk stratification systems for the detection of thyroid cancer in the subgroup of nodules with indeterminate cytology, suggesting their use only to set the thresholds for FNA. A measured difference between L and AP diameters &gt;5 mm may represent an additional and practical tool for ruling out malignancy in thyroid nodules, with the potential to reduce unnecessary surgical procedures