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Long-term effects on parathyroid function and risk factors for permanent hypoparathyroidism in post-surgical differentiated thyroid cancer patients treated with 131I: a retrospective analysis of clinical data

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the long-term effects on parathyroid function and risk factors associated with permanent hypoparathyroidism (HPT) in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients treated with 131I.

Methods

201 postoperative DTC patients were included. Serum levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH), 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH-VD), calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were collected before (baseline) and after 131I treatment. Patients were divided into permanent HPT group and non-permanent HPT group, and risk factors were analyzed using penalized logistic regression (PLR).

Results

There were no statistically significant differences in serum levels of PTH, 25-OH-VD, Ca, P, and ALP among the five time points (baseline, 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, and 36 months) (P > 0.05). Multivariate PLR analysis revealed that the presence of functional metastases in the first 131I-SPECT/CT-whole-body scan (131I-WBS) was a significant risk factor for permanent HPT (OR = 21.392, P < 0.05).

Conclusions

Postoperative 131I therapy for DTC has no significant adverse effects on the parathyroid function within three years, but extremely few patients still develop permanent HPT, with an increased risk in those with functional metastases in the first 131I-WBS.

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Data availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

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Funding

No funding was received for conducting this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Nuclear Medicine, Tianjin, China

    Tong Liu, Yihan Tian, Yanhui Ji & Wei Li

  2. Tianjin Chest Hospital, Nuclear Medicine, Tianjin, China

    Zhiting Zhang

Authors
  1. Tong Liu
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  2. Zhiting Zhang
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  3. Yihan Tian
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  4. Yanhui Ji
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  5. Wei Li
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Contributions

T.L.: Project development, Data collection and analysis, Manuscript writing. Z.Z.: Data collection, Data analysis. Y.T.: Data collection. Y.J.: Critical revision for content. W.L.: Manuscript writing and Editing.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yanhui Ji or Wei Li.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval

This study is a retrospective clinical study summarising and analysing a large amount of clinical data. The ethics committee of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital waived the need to obtain written informed consent from all patients.

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Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or dissemination plans of this research.

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Liu, T., Zhang, Z., Tian, Y. et al. Long-term effects on parathyroid function and risk factors for permanent hypoparathyroidism in post-surgical differentiated thyroid cancer patients treated with 131I: a retrospective analysis of clinical data. Clin Transl Imaging (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40336-024-00634-3

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