THYROID AND PARATHYROID DISEASES – NEW INSIGHTS INTO SOME OLD AND SOME NEW ISSUES

Thyroid and parathyroid diseases are among the most frequent conditions we have to deal with in a clinical setting. Both nodular and autoimmune diseases affecting these glands have increased remarkably over the past decades. The widespread use of crosssectional imaging and the introduction of neck ultrasonography have led to a thyroid nodule epidemics and the diagnostic of neck lesions in half of the population. Consequently, many patients with microscopic papillary thyroid cancers of uncertain clinical significance are submitted to surgeries that may, perhaps, be unnecessary....