Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The long pentraxine-3 (PTX3) is a key component of humoral innate immunity that is expressed in various cell types during stress and tissue injury. PTX3 also acts like an oncosuppressor regulating tumor-promoting inflammation and it is implicated in tissue repair and autoimmunity. Autoimmune disease, tissue remodelling and oncogenesis often coexist in the thyroid. PTX3 role in thyroid disease is still unknown. Aim of the study is to evaluate if plasmatic levels of PTX3 in patients submitted to thyroidectomy for benign or malignant nodular disease are higher than normal.

Materials and methods: After informed consent, patients over 18 years old with nodular disease of the thyroid who were eligible for thyroid surgery were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent total or hemi-thyroidectomy at Humanitas Mater Domini Clinical Institute in Castellanza (VA). A blood sample was taken on the day of surgery and another one was taken 45 days after surgery to evaluate plasmatic PTX3 level. Blood samples were centrifuged and PTX3 levels were evaluated with ELISA test. In this preliminary report, we evaluated the data of the first 53 consecutive patients enrolled in the study.

Results: We found that preoperative plasmatic PTX3 levels were significantly higher than normal in patients with thyroid disease (P < 0.05). Plasmatic PTX3 mean value was 4.54 ng/ml (range 1.06 – 8.63 ng/ml), when normal value is considered 2 ng/ml with 1 ng/ml of standard deviation. At 45 days follow-up PTX3 mean value was reduce to 3.40 ng/ml (range 0.89 – 9.21 ng/ml); this reduction was statistically significant (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: For the first time, at the best of our knowledge, we observed a correlation between elevated PTX3 plasmatic levels and nodular disease of the thyroid. We hope to identify if plasmatic PTX3 could be used as a marker for nodular thyroid disease.