Endocrinology Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) for Benign Thyroid Nodules: Long-term Follow-up Results

During last year, we have more information about minimally invasive therapeutic procedures in medicine that have become very popular. The reasons included reducing risk compared to classic surgical treatment, easy recovery, less complications, and lower cost. One of these methods is ultrasonography-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Low-level laser therapy was first reported in chronic autoimmune thyroiditis patients based on both ultrasound studies and evaluations of thyroid function and thyroid autoantibodies. The preliminary results reveal that low-level laser therapy promotes the improvement of thyroid function, as patients experienced a decreased need for LT4, a reduction in TPOAb levels, and an increase in parenchymal echogenicity. Data concerning the accuracy of [(18)F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D: -glucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography, ultrasonography, and enhanced computed tomography alone in the preoperative diagnosis of lymph node metastasis in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma this year illustrated that ultrasonography of metastases in the central and lateral cervical lymph nodes might be the best methodology for determining the extent of surgical resection required to remove metastatic lymph nodes adequately in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma. The power Doppler ultrasonography in depicting vascularity and to determine whether the combination of vascularity and suspicious gray-scale ultrasound features is more useful in predicting thyroid malignancy than are gray-scale features alone The results concluded that vascularity itself or a combination of vascularity and gray-scale ultrasound features was not as useful as the use of suspicious gray-scale ultrasound features alone for predicting thyroid malignancy. In contrast, systematic review was to obtain summary estimates of the diagnostic accuracy of color Doppler ultrasonography in predicting malignancy in thyroid follicular neoplasms suggested that absence of internal flow or predominantly peripheral flow indicates a low probability of thyroid malignancy in follicular neoplasm. There are 10 recommended references listed which were published during last year. References: 1. Iared W, Shigueoka DC, Cristófoli JC, Andriolo R, Atallah AN, Ajzen SA, Valente O. Use of color Doppler ultrasonography for the prediction of malignancy in follicular thyroid neoplasms: systematic review and meta-analysis. J Ultrasound Med 2010;29:419-25. 2. Moon HJ, Kwak JY, Kim MJ, Son EJ, Kim EK. Can vascularity at power Doppler US help predict thyroid malignancy? Radiology 2010;255:260-9. 3. Baek JH, Kim YS, Lee D, Huh JY, Lee JH. Benign predominantly solid thyroid nodules: prospective study of efficacy of sonographically guided radiofrequency ablation versus control condition. AJR Am J Roentgenol 2010;194:1137-42. 4. Höfling DB, Chavantes MC, Juliano AG, Cerri GG, Romão R, Yoshimura EM, Chammas MC. Low-level laser therapy in chronic autoimmune thyroiditis: a pilot study. Lasers Surg Med