Malignant lymphoma of the thyroid gland: a clinical and pathologic study of twenty cases.

Among 20 patients with malignant lymphoma of the thyroid gland, the mean age at diagnosis was 63 years and the male to female ratio was 1:6. All patients had a firm, rapidly enlarging neck mass. In 90% of the patients the mass had been present for less than 1 year; in 40%, for less than 1 month. Approximately half of the patients tested had hypothyroidism; three fourths had elevated antithyroid antibodies. There was one nodular lymphoma. The remaining 17 cases available for review were diffuse. Thyroid lobectomy was performed in seven patients, limited excision in eight, and needle biopsy alone in five. External irradiation was administered in 11 cases (55%). Chemotherapy was used alone in one patient (5%) and in combination with radiotherapy in eight (40%). Six patients (30%) were alive without evidence of recurrent disease at follow-up ranging from 1 to 12 years. Eleven patients had died of lymphoma, all but one dying within 1 year. One patient died of other causes and two were lost to follow-up study. There was no appreciable effect of patient age or sex, lymphoma histology, or extent of surgical resection on survival. Treatment of choice for primary lymphoma of the thyroid gland appears to be external irradiation or chemotherapy, alone or in combination. The role of surgery is limited to making a tissue diagnosis of lymphoma, unless the tumor is completely intrathyroidal.

Surgical management of hyperinsulinism in the multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 1 syndrome.

We retrospectively reviewed the records of 12 patients from one institution (from 1970 through 1983) who had hyperinsulinism as a part of the multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 1 syndrome. All of the patients underwent surgical exploration: ten had subtotal pancreatectomies, one had enucleation, and one underwent a total pancreatectomy. There was no operative mortality. Preoperative and intraoperative localization studies (angiography and ultrasonography) tended to underestimate the number of pancreatic tumors. Ten patients had multiple B-cell adenomas (mean, 7.4), while two patients had single tumors. This study confirms that hyperinsulinism, when it occurs as part of the multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 1 syndrome, is usually due to multiple islet cell tumors, and that the islet cell tissue is probably diffusely dysplastic. Subtotal (85%) pancreatectomy is suggested as the procedure of choice for this subgroup of patients with hyperinsulinism.

Pancreatic islet cell carcinoma with hypercalcemia. Primary hyperparathyroidism or humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy.

A 60-year-old woman presented with hypercalcemia and was found to have metastatic pancreatic islet cell carcinoma. Although clinical features were very suggestive of hyperparathyroidism, her parathyroid hormone levels were not elevated and no abnormal parathyroid tissue was detected by thallium-technetium or computed tomographic scanning techniques. Her hypercalcemia appeared to be due to a humoral factor--distinct from parathyroid hormone--that mimics the action of parathyroid hormone almost exactly. The various tools that may be used to differentiate primary hyperparathyroidism from the humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy are reviewed.

Solitary parathyroid microadenoma.

In our experience with operations for primary hyperparathyroidism, a recurring problem centers on patients whose solitary adenomas are too small to be appreciated at the initial exploration. We have seen four patients with parathyroid microadenomas, which we define as lesions less than 6 mm in diameter in externally undeformed parathyroid glands. Two such patients were fortuitously cured at the initial exploration even though the operative findings were inconclusive. One, a 25-year-old man, underwent excision of an externally normal gland that contained a 3 by 2 by 2 mm microadenoma. He is eucalcemic since the operation. The other patient, a 70-year-old woman with hypercalcemia, responded to prednisone. She then underwent a neck exploration at which the diagnosis of sarcoidosis was confirmed by lymph node biopsy examination. A 4 by 2 by 2 mm parathyroid microadenoma was incidentally removed. The patient is normocalcemic receiving low-dose steroid treatment since the operation. In a third patient, a 34-year-old practical nurse, three explorations were needed to find a parathyroid gland, which was negative for adenoma on frozen-section microscopy. The solitary adenoma, 6 by 3 by 3 mm, was appreciated only on permanent sections. The majority of oxyphil microadenomas should be suspected to be nonfunctioning, as in a 59-year-old woman in whom the lesion coexisted with primary chief cell parathyroid hyperplasia. The hyperparathyroidism responded well to three and a half-gland resection. The 2 by 2 by 2 mm oxyphil adenoma was also removed. Solitary parathyroid adenomas can be subtle and small. Appraisal of parathyroid disease at the operating table is not always straightforward. As more patients with early hyperparathyroidism appear on routine calcium screening, we may expect to see increasing numbers of challenging solitary parathyroid microadenomas.

Moxalactam. Evaluation of clinical bleeding in patients with abdominal infection.

Previous clinical studies have emphasized that hypoprothrombinemia may occur during treatment with moxalactam disodium, a new broad-spectrum cephalosporin. Usually, this abnormality is corrected by administering vitamin K. Recent case reports have described bleeding complications associated with moxalactam therapy and suggested that platelet function is depressed by this drug. We studied eight patients with abdominal infection who were treated with moxalactam. Six of them had prolonged template bleeding times, and two had clinically significant hemorrhage (epistaxis, hematuria, and rectal bleeding) during treatment with moxalactam. These observations suggest that coagulation studies and template bleeding times should be monitored during moxalactam therapy, especially before major surgery.