Disorders of sex development have posed a tremendous challenge not only in the diagnosis but also in the treatment, placing the patient, the family members, and the health team in the difficult task of attributing the best sex of rearing for that specific patient. A confusing and stigmatizing nomenclature has been employed and the Chicago Consensus tried to minimize the discomfort with modifications of the current terminology. The authors perform a critical analysis of the Consensus, raising the question that […]

Apoptosis is an essential physiological process of elimination of destined cells during the development and differentiation or after damage from external stresses such as ionizing radiation or chemotherapeutic agents. Disruption of apoptosis is proved to cause various diseases including cancer. Among numerous molecules involved in diverse anti- or pro-apoptotic signaling pathways, NF-kB is one of the key factors controlling anti-apoptotic responses. Its anti-apoptotic effect is thought to be mediated through not only transcriptional activation of dependent genes but also by […]

The author reviews the literature on the new assays for serum thyroglobulin (sTg) presenting lower functional sensitivity and demonstrates that its use, whilst the patients are taking L-T4, presents better results than sTg following TSH stimulation in the follow-up of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma. Therefore, he suggests a revision on the guidelines for the follow-up of these patients (developed when the available assays present a sensitivity of 1 ng/mL), proposing the use of sTg assays with functional sensitivity of […]

There are an increasing number of thyroid nodules found by ultrasound and sampled by fine needle aspiration (FNA). A clinical problem is the accurate distinction between benign and malignant forms of follicular lesion. In this review we discuss the thyroid lesions that are common sources of diagnostic error, and grouped together as follicular patterned lesion, and the molecular markers identified by us and others, and that are able to distinguish the benign from the malignant ones.

This review is focused on “new drugs” that might be developed for thyroid cancer treatment. Thyroid cancer is frequently associated to the activation of specific protein (RET, BRAF) and lipid [PI(3)K] kinases. There is good evidence that these genetic lesions are causative events in thyroid cancer initiation or progression. Therefore, novel compounds able to target these kinases might be useful for thyroid cancer treatment. The power of this approach is witnessed by the examples of BCR-ABL, c-KIT and EGFR inhibitors […]

Undifferentiated thyroid cancer (UTC) is a very aggressive tumor with no effective treatment, since it lacks iodine uptake and does not respond to radio or chemotherapy. The prognosis of these patients is bad, due to the rapid growth of the tumor and the early development of metastasis. Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is based on the selective uptake of certain boron non-radioactive compounds by a tumor, and the subsequent irradiation of the area with an appropriate neutron beam. 10B is […]

INTRODUCTION: Neuropsychological changes are still controversial in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism (SH). The objective of this study is to assess these changes. METHOD: Cross-sectional study comparing the results of the neurocognitive evaluation of 65 SH patients and 31 individuals without thyroid disease. Subclinical hypothyroidism was defined as at least two elevated serum TSH levels (> 4 µUI/ml) with normal serum free T4 levels (0.9-1.8 ng/dl). The participants underwent the following neuropsychological assessment: Buschke’s Selective Reminding Procedure, Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test, […]

Even though differentiated thyroid carcinoma is a slow growing and usually curable disease, recurrence occurs in 20-40% and cellular dedifferentiation in up to 5% of cases. Conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy have just a modest effect on advanced thyroid cancer. Therefore, dedifferentiated thyroid cancer represents a therapeutic dilemma and a critical area of research. Targeted therapy, a new generation of anticancer treatment, is planned to interfere with a specific molecular target, typically a protein that is believed to have a critical […]

Subclinical hypothyroidism (SH) has been associated with an increased risk for coronary disease. Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), as assessed by ultrasonography, is a precise marker of atherosclerotic changes and can be used as an endpoint for cardiovascular events. Aims of this study were to determine carotid IMT in a group of patients with SH and its possible association with an increase in cardiovascular risk. There were no significant differences in mean carotid IMT between patients and controls. Results of both […]

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the main cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in developed countries. OBJECTIVE: To observe if there was an increase in the prevalence of diabetes mellitus (DM) of CKD in the last 20 years and to analyze comparatively the survival on dialysis of diabetic and non-diabetic patients. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of patients kept on dialysis in the west region of Paraná State in the period between 1985

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent a novel class of endogenous ~22-nucleotide RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression by inhibiting translation of target RNAs. Discovered just over a decade ago in Caenorhabditis elegans, miRNAs are now recognized as one of the major regulatory gene families in plants and animals. In the human genome, 462 miRNA genes have been discovered and the estimated number of miRNAs is as high as 1000. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that a unique miRNA acts on several mRNA, influencing multiple […]

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the metabolic control of a cohort of adult type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients assisted in a public Diabetes Center (DC) that follows the rules of a national diabetes society. METHODS: We compared for one year the metabolic control and the characteristics of 175 T1DM patients attended by a multidisciplinary team in a DC (test group) with 30 patients assisted only by endocrinologists at a public endocrinology outpatient center (control group). RESULTS: The test group presented a […]