Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23408061›Full record

ArticleLangenbeck's archives of surgery2013

Hypercalcitoninemia in thyroid conditions other than medullary thyroid carcinoma: a comparative analysis of calcium and pentagastrin stimulation of serum calcitonin.

Kerstin Lorenz, Malik Elwerr, Andreas Machens, Mohammed Abuazab, Hans-Jürgen Holzhausen, Henning Dralle

Abstract readComparative Study
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Langenbeck's archives of surgery, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
2.3field-weighted citation impact, top 13% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Revised American Thyroid Association guidelines for the management of medullary thyroid carcinoma.Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association · 2015
    Guideline
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Review
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Biochemical Testing in Thyroid Disorders.Endocrinology and metabolism clinics of North America · 2017
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.

Kerstin LorenzDepartment of General, Visceral, and Vascular Surgery, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany. kerstin.lorenz@uk-halle.de
Malik Elwerr
Andreas Machens
Mohammed Abuazab
Hans-Jürgen Holzhausen
Henning Dralle
Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeCalcitonin screening aims at uncovering occult medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) in patients with nodular thyroid disease. Elevated basal calcitonin serum levels call for calcitonin stimulation, the level of which may direct the extent of surgery. Because pentagastrin has become restricted, calcium has increasingly been used instead for stimulation. This study identified a new spectrum of patients demonstrating a false-positive hypercalcitoninemia in the absence of C-cell disease, carrying multinodular goiter (MNG), thyroiditis, and non-MTC thyroid malignancy, and endeavored to explore the feasibility of extrapolating pentagastrin-stimulated to calcium-stimulated calcitonin thresholds.

methodsAltogether, 43 (9.5 %) of 455 patients with nodular thyroid disease revealed increased basal calcitonin serum levels between 2005 and 2012, for which they underwent intravenous stimulation with pentagastrin (31 patients) or calcium gluconate (12 patients) before and after primary thyroidectomy.

resultsStimulation with calcium gluconate resulted in significantly higher and more variable preoperative calcitonin serum levels after 2 (241.2 vs. 104.9 pg/mL; P = 0.018) and 5 min (240.6 vs. 87.4 pg/mL; P = 0.007) than stimulation with pentagastrin. Stimulation with calcium gluconate produced 10-fold (nodular goiter), 15-fold (thyroiditis), and 21-fold (thyroid neoplasia other than MTC) calcitonin increases over baseline, as opposed to 5-fold, 10-fold, and 8-fold increases after stimulation with pentagastrin. None of the 43 patients, all of whom reverted to undetectable calcitonin serum levels after thyroidectomy, had immunohistochemical evidence of C-cell disease. Subgroup analyses according to gender and thyroid disease, being limited by the low number of patients in each subgroup, did not yield significant differences.

conclusionsCalcium stimulation yields significantly greater calcitonin levels than pentagastrin stimulation, precluding generalization of pentagastrin-stimulated to calcium-stimulated calcitonin thresholds. After calcium stimulation, false-positive findings appear to be more common in patients of female gender and patients with thyroiditis and thyroid neoplasia other than MTC, potentially effecting surgical overtreatment.

Indexed as

Analysis of VarianceBiomarkers, TumorCalcitoninCalcium GluconateCarcinoma, NeuroendocrineCohort StudiesDatabases, FactualFemaleHumansMalePentagastrinPreoperative CareRetrospective StudiesRisk AssessmentSensitivity and SpecificityStatistics, NonparametricBiomarkers, TumorCalcitoninCalcium GluconatePentagastrin

Identifiers

PMID23408061
OpenAlexW1986093286

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.