Hypercalcemia was corrected in 62 (90%) of 69 patients after re-operation for primary hyperparathyroidism during a mean follow-up of 6.3 years. Failed primary exploration was mainly due to inadequate visualization of the pathological parathyroid glands, often in association with misleading or absent peroperative histology. Other causes included seeding of parathyroid adenoma tissue, truly recurrent adenomas, and recurrent hyperplasia, especially in patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1. A considerable number of parathyroid glands missed at the primary operations were subsequently found in essentially normal positions. Ectopic superior glands were most frequently positioned para-esophageally or retro-esophageally, while abnormally placed inferior glands were generally situated within or close to the thymus. Glands in 3 patients were dissected from around the large vessels in the mediastinum. Concomitant thyroid procedures during the primary operation yielded few abnormal parathyroids and made the re-exploration considerably more difficult. We suggest a semilateral approach and caudal identification of the recurrent laryngeal nerve to reduce the hazards of difficult parathyroid re-operations. Mediastinal exploration may require total removal of the thymus and careful dissection of the middle mediastinum.

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PubMedDate not supplied

Thyroid blood flow rate in man. Electromagnetic flowmetry during operation in euthyroid normal gland, nontoxic goiter, and hyperthyroidism.

Human thyroid blood flow rate (TBF) was measured during operations by electromagnetic flowmetry in 75 euthyroid patients with normal thyroid tissue, nodular goiter, or solitary adenoma, and in 22 hyperthyroid patients with diffuse or nodular goiter. Blood flow rate was measured in one to four of the thyroid arteries. No difference in blood flow rate was seen between the left and right lobes. The slight difference found between the inferior and superior arteries was not significant. In each subject, total TBF was calculated as 4 times the mean of the recorded blood flow in the single arteries. The total TBF was 31 (9-109) ml/min (inner 95 percentile range) in euthyroid patients, similar in all 3 groups. This is less than in most earlier reports. The relative TBF was 1.2 (0.4-3.8) ml/min/g thyroid tissue in normal thyroid tissue and 0.6 (0.1-3.7) ml/min/g in nontoxic nodular goiter (p less than 0.01). Patients with hyperthyroidism had a higher total TBF 54 (15-197) ml/Min (p less than 0.001), despite preoperative treatment giving euthyroidism, Similar TBF rates were found in 3 hyperthyroid patients given propranolol preoperatively. Electromagnetic flowmetry is applicable to study thyroid blood flow rate. Human TBF shows considerable interindividual variations, which must be kept in mind when studying directly the rate of thyroid hormone secretion from arteriovenous gradients.

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PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of repeated mammographic screening on breast cancer stage distribution. Results from a randomised study of 92 934 women in a Swedish county.

A randomised controlled trial of mass screening for breast cancer by single-view mammography was begun in Sweden in 1977. All women aged 40 and older and resident in the counties of Kopparberg and Ostergötland were enrolled. The present report is confined to the Ostergötland study, which started in 1978 and comprised 92 934 women. After randomisation, which was done on the basis of communities rather than individuals, 47 001 women were allocated to the study group and offered repeated mammographic screening; 45 933 were allocated to the control group. As compliance among women over 74 years of age was poor these were excluded from the present report. The yearly incidence of stage II or more advanced breast cancers after the initial screening round up to and including the second was reduced by 40 per cent in the study group compared with the controls. This effect was less marked in the age group 40-49. After 5.5 years average from the date of entry the absolute number of women with stage II-IV disease in the control group exceeded that for the study group by 44, whereas there was a large excess of cancer in situ and stage I cancer in the study group.

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