Significance of thyroglobulin in thyroid diseases detected by the immunoperoxidase method.

ABSTRACT

Thyroglobulin (TG) is a protein that synthesized from the thyroid follicular epithelium and can reflect the thyroid gland in origin together with the cellular activity. The aim of this study is to detect TG qualitatively and semiquantitatively by immunoperoxidase method in various thyroid lesions. The result shows that all of the nodular goitre (43 cases), primary diffuse hyperplasia (18 cases), adenoma 60 cases, papillary carcinoma (43 cases) and follicular carcinoma (22 cases) show cytoplasmic staining of TG in varying pattern and intensity, while only 3 out of the 7 anaplastic carcinoma show irregular cytoplasmic staining. These findings can be used in identifying the thyroid gland in origin in the metastatic lesion and the functional status of the lesion.