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Trimboli_2022_Spri_endocrine_1
Journal article

The dilemma of routine testing for calcitonin thyroid nodule’s patients to detect or exclude medullary carcinoma : one single negative test should be valuable as rule-out strategy to avoid further calcitonin measurements over time

  • Trimboli, Pierpaolo ORCID Servizio di Endocrinologia e Diabetologia, Ospedale Regionale di Lugano, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC), Lugano, Switzerland - Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
  • Camponovo, Chiara ORCID Servizio di Endocrinologia e Diabetologia, Ospedale Regionale di Lugano, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC), Lugano, Switzerland
  • Ruinelli, Lorenzo Team Data Science & Research, Area ICT, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Bellinzona, Switzerland
  • 2022
Published in:
  • Endocrine. - 2022, vol. 77, p. 80–85
Calcitonin
Medullary thyroid carcinoma
Thyroid nodule
Routine testing
English Purpose: While calcitonin (CT) measurement is recognized as the most accurate tool to diagnose medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC), its routine use in patients with thyroid nodule (TN) is not universally accepted. The present study raised the question whether a TN patient with an initial normal CT can have suspicious CT levels (i.e., at least >20 pg/ml) later during his follow-up. Methods: The historical database of our institution was searched to select TN patients undergone multiple CT tests, having an initial normal CT, and clinically followed up for years. The event of a CT above 20 pg/ml (mild-to-moderate suspicion) and 100 pg/ml (high suspicion) was searched in the follow-up of the included patients. Results: According to the study design, the study sample encompassed 170 patients (131 female, 39 male) with initial CT value ≤10 pg/ml. On the first CT test, patients were 54.8 years and median CT was 2.1 pg/ml in both females and males. Over a period of 14.5 years and a median clinical follow-up of patients of 53.0 (23.9–102.5) months, MTC could be excluded by histology or cytology in 109 (64%) and clinically in the remaining ones. On the follow-up over time, no patients had CT >20 pg/ml and only two cases had CT just above 10 pg/ml. Conclusion: According to the present results, one single CT testing with normal value could be reasonably used as a rule-out strategy in patients with TN to avoid further CT measurements.
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Language
  • English
Classification
Medicine
License
CC BY
Open access status
hybrid
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Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1326719
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