ABSTRACT
The data of well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma in 677 patients who have been followed up from 1979 to 1998 were analyzed at Nuclear Medicine Section, Siriraj Hospital. The results revealed that the sex ratio of female: male was 2.96:1, and the age ranged between 9 and 96 years with the mean + SD of 45.8 + 16.6 years. The peak incidence of female patients occurred chiefly in the middle age (31-40 years), while the majority of male patients occurred predominantly in late middle age and in the elderly (51-61 years). The patients with papillary, follicular and mixed papillary-follicular carcinomas were 49.0%, 40.0% and 11.0%, respectively. These data also indicated that 8.0% of thyroglobulin antibodies and 5.3% of microsomal antibodies by haemagglutination method were detected in the sera of these patients. Moreover, the follow-up times of the patients with treated differentiated thyroid carcinomas at 1-11 months, 1-5 years, 6-10 years, 11-15 years and over 16 years were found to be 13.1%, 62.3%, 14.8%, 7.0% and 2.8%, respectively.
ABSTRACT
The influence of combined oral contraceptives, namely, ethinyl estradiol (30 µg) and levonorgestrel (150 µg) was studied in nine cases of thyrotoxicosis divided into two groups: one group of htyrotoxic woman treated with propyl thiouracil (PTU) and another untreated group. The latter group of patients were than maintained on both PTU and the combined oral contraceptive pills; some cases were studied for 16-33 months. Before, during and after treatment, all patients were tested and confirmed by clinical examinations and thyroid function tests which were divided into two group: in vivo (24h 131/I uptake and T3-suppression test) and in vivo (total serum thyroxine (TT4), total T3 (TT3), T3 uptake (T3U), free thyroxine index (FTI) and thyrotropin (TSH). The results revealed that the values of TT4, TT3 and FTI were markedly high in the untreated group but these values decreased significantly (P<0.001) and remained within normal ranges after treatment with PTU and the contraceptive pills was initiated. Improved clinical symptoms and sings were also observed. However, the levels of TT4, TT3 and T3 uptake were elevated in the long-term treatments of both groups, but the FTI and TSH values were within normal limits, indicating that the values of FTI as well as TSH gave effective measurements of thyroid activity in evaluating the patients whose total thyroid hormones were abnormal because of altered TBG concentration and binding capacity. Therefore, our finding suggested that the prolonged use of combined oral contraceptive pills dose not interfere with medical treatment of thyrotoxic patients.