[Medullary carcinoma of the thyroid: a case of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A]. / Carcinoma midollare della tiroide: un caso di neoplasia endocrina multipla tipo 2 A.

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a neoplasm derived from thyroid C-cells. It can appear under different variants; in the 20-30% of the cases, it's a familial variant. Nevertheless, the MTC appearing in MEN 2-A has a better prognosis compared to MEN 2-B. Usually, the diagnosis of MEN 2-A is done at the age of 20, and frequently (in the 50% of the cases) these patients develop, in a second time, adrenal hyperplasia and/or pheochromocytoma. The case we are talking about, concerns a patient of 49 years old, who came to our observation with a history of bilateral adrenalectomy for pheochromocytoma. What attracted our attention was the presence, in his family, of a brother, who died from pheochromocytoma, and the mother, died for a MTC. During the admit in our section, the patient has undergone a screening for the thyroid function, also if there wasn't a sign or symptom of interest of the gland. It has been possible to single out some nodular formations that, together with the high value of the calcitonin found, allowed the diagnosis of MTC. It has been very important to make diagnosis of MEN 2-A because we can introduce the patient and his family to a program of screening to precociously single out the presence of the typical signs of this pathology. In MEN 2-A a precocious diagnosis allows to sensibly improve the prognosis.

Piroxicam-induced analgesia: evidence for a central component which is not opioid mediated.

Piroxicam is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug with a potent analgesic effect. In order to establish whether the analgesic action of Piroxicam has a central component, we studied the effect of the drug on the nociceptive orbicularis oculi reflexes evoked by electrical stimulation of the cornea and supraorbital nerve in healthy subjects. Piroxicam significantly suppressed the corneal reflex and R3 component of the blink reflex by 28% (p < 0.05) and 50% (p < 0.01), respectively. This effect was not reversed by the i.v. injection of naloxone. Beta-endorphin levels did not change. Piroxicam administration induces distinct inhibitory changes in nociceptive reflexes, which suggests that the analgesic action of the drug has a central component. The ineffectiveness of naloxone, and the lack of beta-endorphin changes, indicate that this central action is independent of the opioid system; other pain regulatory systems are probably involved.