ArticleDiagnostic pathology2021
Diagnostic performance of Midkine ratios in fine-needle aspirates for evaluation of Cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules.
Article in Diagnostic pathology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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4 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Serum Thyroid Biomarkers for Diagnosing Malignant Thyroid Nodules: A Machine Learning Approach with External and Causal Validation.Journal of Cancer · 2026Article
- NF1 mutation-driven neuronal hyperexcitability sets a threshold for tumorigenesis and therapeutic targeting of murine optic glioma.Neuro-oncology · 2024Article
- Thyroid Nodules: Emerging Trends in Detection and Visualization based on Citespace.Endocrine, metabolic & immune disorders drug targets · 2024Article
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11 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
backgroundFine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a basic diagnostic tool for thyroid nodules. However, 15-30% of nodules are cytologically indeterminate. Midkine (MK), a pleiotropic growth factor, is often upregulated in patients with cancers. This study aimed to evaluate the role of MK and its ratios in fine-needle aspirates (FNA) for predicting thyroid malignancy.
methodsThis retrospective study included patients with thyroid nodules who underwent preoperative FNA and/or thyroidectomy between April 2017 and September 2017. MK levels in FNA washout were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and thyroglobulin (TG) and free thyroxine (FT4) levels in FNA washout were measured by chemiluminescent immunometric assays.
resultsA total of 217 patients with 242 nodules were included in this study. The concentrations of TG, FT4, MK/TG, MK/FT4, and FT4/MK were significantly different between papillary thyroid carcinomas and benign thyroid nodules. Both MK/TG and MK/FT4 ratios were positively correlated with maximum tumor diameter, extrathyroidal extension, and T and N stages. The area under the curve for MK/TG was 0.719 with a cutoff value of 55.57 ng/mg, while the area under the curve for MK/FT4 was 0.677 with a cutoff value of 0.11 μg/pmol. FNAC in combination with MK/FT4 had a higher sensitivity (95% vs. 91%) and accuracy (96% vs. 92%) than FNAC alone for cytologically indeterminate specimens, those of unknown significance, or those suspected of malignancy.
conclusionsMK/FT4 and MK/TG may have diagnostic utility for evaluation of papillary thyroid carcinomas, particularly for cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules.
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