This paper presents the results of the study of six patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MCT) and the epidemiological screening carried out on the families of individuals affected by MCT. Three patients had the familial and three the sporadic type of disease. In all the subjects the plasma calcitonin (CT) level was measured under basal conditions and after pentagastrin stimulation. Patients with familial disease were also found to have pheochromocytoma (MEA syndrome). One patient, whose thyroid was normal to palpation and radioisotope scanning and who did not have an elevated resting level of CT, showed a clearcut CT elevation after provocative testing and subsequently was shown, by surgery, to have a small nodule of C-cell hyperplasia. These results confirm that pentagastrin is a good stimulator of CT secretion and that i.v. administration of pentagastrin is a useful test in the investigation of MCT in its early subclinical stage.
Medullary carcinoma of the thyroid. (Clinical and endocrinological features of six cases).
DEGLI UBERTI, Ettore;TRASFORINI, Giorgio;LIBONI, Alberto;PANSINI, Giancarlo;ALTAVILLA, Giuseppe
1981
Abstract
This paper presents the results of the study of six patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MCT) and the epidemiological screening carried out on the families of individuals affected by MCT. Three patients had the familial and three the sporadic type of disease. In all the subjects the plasma calcitonin (CT) level was measured under basal conditions and after pentagastrin stimulation. Patients with familial disease were also found to have pheochromocytoma (MEA syndrome). One patient, whose thyroid was normal to palpation and radioisotope scanning and who did not have an elevated resting level of CT, showed a clearcut CT elevation after provocative testing and subsequently was shown, by surgery, to have a small nodule of C-cell hyperplasia. These results confirm that pentagastrin is a good stimulator of CT secretion and that i.v. administration of pentagastrin is a useful test in the investigation of MCT in its early subclinical stage.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
