The Expression of NIS and Pendrin in Thyroid Cancer Tissues with Real Time RT-PCR / 대한내분비외과학회지

PURPOSE: It has not been clearly investigated how iodine can be trapped from the extracellular space into thyroid follicular cells, the defective iodide-trapping mechanism appears to be an early and constant feature during oncogenic transformation of thyroid cells. In recent studies, NIS and pendrin are associated with the trapping process. Thus, in order to reveal this uncertain relationship, each of the quantitative expressions of NIS and pendrin in various thyroid tissues were evaluated by real time RT-PCR. METHODS: This study included 63 patients who had undergone thyroidectomy in Uijongbu St. Mary's hospital from Jan. 2000 to Jan. 2003. 13 cases of normal thyroid, 17 cases of hypofunctioning thyroid adenomas, and 33 cases of thyroid cancer were examined. The thyroid cancer group was further divided into high and low risk group according to the AMES score, and the NIS and pendrin levels were compared between the two groups. Real time RT-PCR was conducted with the extracted RNAs, using GAPDH as the control. RESULTS: As for pendrin, its expression was decreased by 7% in the thyroid adenoma group compared with that of normal thyroid, while there was a 59% decrease in thyroid cancer cases. NIS expression was decreased by 20% in the thyroid adenoma group, and a 40% decrease was found in thyroid cancer group. Due to the impediment of pendrin in both high and low risk group of thyroid cancer, there was a 19% decrease in the high risk group compared with the low risk group. As for the impediment of NIS in the high risk group, an increase of 30% was found. However, no statistical significance was shown (P=0.344 vs P=0.688). CONCLUSION: According to this study, it can be inferred that the decrease in the expressions of NIS and pendrin are related to tumorigenesis of thyroid cancer. Also, further research is needed to reveal the cause of genetic transformation, as well as the value of utilization of NIS and pendrin as tumor markers.

Primary Amyloidosis Involving Mediastinal and Hilar Lymph Nodes: A Case Report

Amyloidosis is a rare systemic disease caused by extracellular accumulation of insolubel fibrillar material invarious tissues. The radiographic findings of amyloidosis involving the lymph nodes have not been previously reported in Korea, and we report a rare case of primary amyloidosis involving the mediastinal and hilar lymphnodes, with CT and radiographic appearances.

Sclerosis of hepatic cavernous hemangioma: CT findings and pathologic correlation

We report a case of hepatic cavernous hemangioma with computed tomographic findings of well demarcated nodular lesser attenuation foci within the main low attenuation mass on precontrast scans and non-enhancement of the foci even on the delayed contrast scans. These have been described as one of the atypical findings of cavernous hemangioma earlier in the literature. Surgery proved that sclerosis accounted for the hypodense nodular densities within the hepatic cavernous hemangioma.

Impact of clinical history on film interpretation

We performed a study to determine whether clinical history gives a positive or negative influence on X-ray film interpretation. One hundred and nine patient's radiograms, consisting of 55 normal and 54 abnormal cases (136 abnormalities), were interpreted twice by three pairs of residents in radiology and a pair of qualified radiologists, without clinical history first and with clinical history next. The interpreters recorded diagnosis and confidence level of normal or abnormal findings on a six-point scale. Analysis of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves showed that knowledge of clinical history improved diagnostic accuracy. Residents, especially beginners, should be advised to obtain clinical history whenever they read radiograms.

Computed tomographic features of tuberculous arthritis

The sparsity of publication concerning CT findings of tuberculous arthritis prompted authors to retrospectively evaluate 12 patients with tuberculous arthritis for characteristic CT findings. In each patient, the diagnosis of tuberculous arthritis was confirmed by surgery or biopsy. The CT examinations were evaluated by two radiologists retrospectively. Involved joints were the hip joint in seven patients, the sacroiliac joint in three parients, and the shoulder and ankle joint in one patients each. CT features included subchondral bony erosion(12 patients), soft tissue mass in the joint space(nine), widenining of the joint space(eight), ipsilateral muscle atrophy(eight), thickening of the joint capsule(seven), intra-articular effusion(six), soft tissue abscess(five),and bony sclerosis(four). In seven patients with the duration of symptoms less than 1 year, thickening of joint capsule and intra-articular effusion were the predominent findings, while bony sclerosis, gross bone destruction, and soft tissue mass in joint space were seen in five patients with the duration of symptoms longer than 1 year. Our results indicate that CT is useful in the diagnosis of tuberculous arthritis by demonstrating characteristic pathologic changes of the joint space, soft tissue abnormality and bony involvement.