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K M van Tol

Publications and source records attributed to K M van Tol.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

Outcome in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer with negative diagnostic whole-body scanning and detectable stimulated thyroglobulin.

BACKGROUND: Management of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma with negative diagnostic radioiodide scanning and increased serum thyroglobulin (Tg) concentrations is a widely debated problem. High-dose iodine-131 treatment of patients who have a negative (131)I diagnostic whole-body scan (WBS) is advocated. However, the therapeutic benefit of this "blind" treatment is not clear. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the course of serum Tg during thyroid hormone suppression therapy (Tg-on) and clinical outcome in patients with negative diagnostic (131)I scanning and increased serum Tg concentrations during thyroid hormone withdrawal (Tg-off), after treatment with high-dose (131)I. DESIGN: Retrospective single-center study. METHODS: Fifty-six patients were treated with a blind therapeutic dose of 150 mCi (131)I. Median follow-up from this treatment until the end of observation was 4.2 Years (range 0.5-13.5 Years). RESULTS: The post-treatment WBS revealed (131)I uptake in 28 patients, but none in the remaining 28 patients. In this study the Tg-on values did not change after treatment in either the positive or the negative post-treatment WBS group. During follow-up, 18 of the 28 patients with a positive post-treatment WBS achieved complete remission, compared with 10 of the 28 patients with a negative post-treatment WBS. Nine patients in the negative group died, but no patients died in the positive post-treatment group (P=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: High-dose iodine treatment in diagnostically negative patients who have a negative post-treatment scan seems to confer no additional value for tumor reduction and survival. In patients with a positive post-treatment scan, high-dose iodine treatment can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify tumor location, and a therapeutic effect may be present in individual cases.

Adenoma, Oxyphilic↗

Differentiated thyroid carcinoma in the elderly.

The overall prognosis of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer is excellent, but the prognosis is rapidly worsening, when the disease is diagnosed in elderly patients. Old patients more often present with poor prognostic features, such as large tumors, follicular or Hürthle cell subtypes, extrathyroidal growth and distant metastases. Therefore, an optimal therapeutic approach is recommended. Current therapy includes a total thyroidectomy, if necessary combined with a lymph node dissection and followed by high dose radioiodine ablation. Radioiodine therapy in elderly patients meets specific problems, concerning thyroid hormone withdrawal, side effects of 131I and nursing problems. Additional treatment of residual, recurrent or metastatic disease must be tailored, according to the stage of the disease, and should not be denied on the basis of chronological age. Lifelong treatment with suppressive thyroid hormone therapy does not lead to important long-term side effects at old age.

Aged↗

Differentiated thyroid carcinoma: a polygenic disease.

Differentiated thyroid cancer is a rare disease and until recently was considered to be sporadic. However, increasing evidence has been found for a genetic basis of this disease. In approximately 5% of patients the differentiated thyroid cancer is dominantly inherited. Several families with different syndromes, of which differentiated thyroid cancer is a feature, have already been described. However, until now, single genes explain only a minority of cases. We hypothesize that differentiated thyroid cancer is a polygenic disease. Data from epidemiologic studies, about occult and multifocal carcinomas and the different response to specific risk factors contribute to this hypothesis.

Carcinoma↗

Diurnal variation in glomerular charge selectivity, urinary albumin excretion and blood pressure in insulin-dependent diabetic patients.

The urinary albumin excretion rate (AER) in a subgroup of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) steadily increases. In these patients a concomitant reduction of the glomerular charge selectivity index (SI) has been demonstrated. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether diurnal variation in AER could be related to a diurnal variation in SI and/or a diurnal blood pressure variation. Thirty-three patients with IDDM, 27 with normal albumin excretion (AER < 20 micrograms/min; group D(o)) and six with incipient nephropathy (AER from 20 to 200 micrograms/min; group DA), were studied. AER and SI (renal clearance ratio of total-IgG/IgG4) were measured in three different urine collecting periods: period A (8:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m.), period B (12:00 a.m. to bedtime) and period C (bedtime to 8:00 a.m.). A significant increase in SI was seen during the nighttime: period A, 1.6 (0.2 to 3.8; mean, range); period B, 1.7 (0.3 to 3.0); and period C, 2.0 (0.2 to 4.0); P = 0.01. Corresponding to this observation, an overall significant decrease in AER was found: period A, 10 (3 to 137) micrograms/min (median, range); period B, 8 (3 to 84) micrograms/min; and period C, 5 (0 to 78) micrograms/min; P < 0.001. In all three sampling periods a negative correlation was found between AER and SI. When group D(o) was analyzed alone, the results were similar. Diurnal variation in blood pressure was significantly positively correlated with AER in group DA, but was not correlated to variation in AER in D(o). We suggest that in normoalbuminuric IDDM patients diurnal variation in AER is related to diurnal variation in SI.

Adolescent↗

[Skin lesions as a rare initial symptom of Kahler's disease].

Multiple skin lesions developed in a 70 year-old-man. Pathological examination revealed plasmacytomas. Because of the presence of a IgD paraprotein and 15% abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow Kahler's disease of the IgD type was diagnosed. In accordance with literature the course of the disease was rapidly progressive. After an initial favourable response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the patient died one year after diagnosis. Extraosseous tissue involvement and hepatosplenomegaly are well-known phenomenon of IgD-Kahler's disease. Skin plasmacytomas as the first symptom of the disease are very rare.

Aged↗