RTA is an effective and simple procedure for obtaining lasting shrinkage of TNs, controlling compressive symptoms, and treating thyroid hyperfunction. When performed in experienced medical centers, RTA may be a valid alternative to conventional treatments for nontoxic and pretoxic TNs. It is particularly attractive for elderly people for whom surgery and radioiodine therapy are often contraindicated or ineffective.

RTA induced a marked TN volume shrinkage resulting in parallel improvement of pressure symptoms. In most patients with toxic TNs, hyperthyroidism significantly improved as well. RTA may represent a valid therapeutic approach in patients with TNs not receiving conventional treatments.

LTA appears to be a valid and safe alternative approach in the treatment of benign thyroid nodules.

A significant increase of IMT of both common carotid arteries was observed in patients with active acromegaly, this was also found in those cured from acromegaly. However, the prevalence of well defined carotid plaques was not increased in both groups of patients with acromegaly as compared to controls. On this basis, heart more than vessels seems to be affected by chronic GH and IGF-I excess in acromegaly.

The usefulness of a recent color Doppler (CD) ultrasonography technique, named power Doppler (PD), was evaluated in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules showing low or absent uptake of ^99mTc-pertechnetate, in order to investigate the possibility to improve the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasonography. The rationale was the evidence that at PD the color map displays the total integrated Doppler power in color, while CD generally displays an estimate of the mean Doppler shift. The vascular patterns recorded at PD and CD evaluation of 322 thyroid nodules were compared to the results of cytology and/or histology, when surgery was performed. In respect to the results of cytology, PD has a higher sensitivity (100 vs. 91%) and specificity (95.1 vs. 86.2%) than CD. A similar result was found when PD and CD were compared to the results of histology, sensitivity being 100 vs. 89% and specificity 98.1 vs. 93.7%, respectively. During the follow-up the 2 nodules considered false positive at PD resulted to be tumoral lesions. On this basis, the final specificity of PD in our series was 100%. In conclusion, in the current series including 322 thyroid nodules characterized by a low or absent uptake of ^99mTc-pertechnetate, PD seems to provide a better characterization of thyroid nodules, possibly allowing a more accurate selection of the patients to subject to fine-needle biopsy.