A high prevalence of hypothyroidism, very severe in some cases, was observed during sunitinib. Significant variations in (123)I uptake strongly suggest that the underlying mechanism is an impaired iodine uptake. The absence of thyroid autoimmunity, the lack of a preceding transient hyperthyroidism, and the normal echographic pattern exclude autoimmune and/or destructive mechanisms. Patients on sunitinib should be strictly monitored for the appearance of hypothyroidism and promptly treated.

Background: The association of hyperparathyroidism (HPT) with thyroid disease has long been known, but the mechanisms underlying such an association have not yet been clari®ed. Objective: To elucidate the main factors determining this combination of endocrine diseases, in a retrospective multicenter study. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all patients referred for parathyroid scintigraphy in the period 1990±1999. A total of 487 patients in the age range 17±65 years were selected for the analysis (339 women and 148 men); group A included 241 patients with primary and group B 246 patients with secondary HPT. Results: A total of 124/241 patients in group A (51.5%), but only 92/246 patients in group B (38.2%) had thyroid disorders (notably nodular goiter) associated with HPT P 0X0035X Thyroid disorders were evenly distributed throughout the entire 17±65 years age range in group A, but 17± 40-year-old patients in group B had signi®cantly fewer thyroid disorders than the older patients of the same group (15.5% compared with 43.3%, P , 0X002), as expected in a general population. In patients with primary HPT there was no difference in the prevalence of thyroid disease between women and men, whereas the ratio of women to men in secondary HPT patients with thyroid disease was about 3:1.Conclusions: These results demonstrate an increased prevalence of nodular goiter in patients with primary rather than secondary HPT, and are consistent with a possible role of increased endogenous calcium concentrations (a hallmark of primary, but not of secondary, HPT) as a goitrogenic factor in patients with HPT.

This pilot study shows that, in LVV patients, the combined evaluation of the intensity and the extension of FDG vessel uptake at diagnosis can predict the clinical course of the disease, separating patients with favourable or complicated progress.

AS is not recommended as screening test in AI patients, but it can be useful to exclude the presence of a subtle cortisol excess in patients with unclear biochemical diagnosis of SH.