Active clinical trials for "Thyroid Nodule"

Percutaneous radiofrequency thermal ablation (RTA) was reported as an effective tool for the management of thyroid nodules (TNs). This study aims to validate RTA as a valid approach for patients with compressive TNs for whom surgery is contraindicated or refused. Two groups of subjects with TNs (one group to treat with RTA and a matched untreated control group) will be evaluated in term of TN volume, thyroid hormones and clinical symptoms.

Thyroid nodule pathologies occur frequently and represent a clinical issue for the endocrinologists, surgeons, nuclear physicians as well as the general practitioners. The incidence of this pathology has been further highlighted by the introduction of the ultrasound examination into the clinical practice as 20% with impalpable thyroid nodules is now detected through ultrasound. The majority of nodules are benign and characterized by slow growth, and therefore treated with suppressive doses of levothyroxine. Long-term levothyroxine treatment has, however, several well-known side effects and limitations. During the last years, number of controlled studies have demonstrated that ultrasound guided percutaneous laser treatment (PLA) is able to reach the target lesion within the thyroid with a high level of precision, and to destroy the thyroid tissue in a predictable and repeatable fashion, without side effects. Aim of the study: to assess 1-year and 3-year effect of laser ablation therapy on the volume of benign thyroid nodules and on nodule-related symptoms, and to compare these effects with findings in control group without active therapy; to assess the eventual re-occurence of thyroid lesions (observed after other types of ablation treatment, like percutaneous ethanol injection) during a 3-year follow-up; to demonstrate reproducibility of results within different environments and under different operators; to validate eventual presence of major or minor side effects. To this aim we shall randomized 200 patients either for PLA (100 pts) or standard follow-up. Patients will be recruited, treated and followed in 4 italian centers (Ospedale Regina Apostolorum - Roma, Arcispedale S. Maria Nuova - Reggio Emilia, Ospedale S. Maria della Misericordia - Perugia, Ospedale di Cisanello - Pisa) by physicians with experience in PLA.The scientific coordinator of this multicentre study is dr. Claudio Maurizio Pacella.

This proposal is designed as a pilot study for the use of laser ablation for local control of symptomatic (e.g compressive) benign thyroid masses in 20 patients.

The study design is a randomized study to directly compare the performance and the outcome of syringe and needle procedures with a standard syringe or the new reciprocating procedure device (RDP), which is a type of safety syringe. Over a 5 year period, 820 subjects who require and assent to a syringe and needle procedure for their usual and customary care will be randomized to either a conventional syringe or the RPD with one arm with and without ultrasound guidance. The RPD is designed to be safer, faster, less painful, and more effective for the patient, and the mechanics of the RPD are intended to provide the physician with better needle control, resulting in less needle trauma to patient tissues, and thus, reduced bleeding and pain for the patient. This clinical trial will address whether the RPD is indeed superior to the conventional syringe for shots, injections, and needle procedures, and whether it is a safer, less painful syringe.

This is a randomized, prospective equivalence trial on the safety of the Ligasure Vessel Sealing System as used in thyroid surgery. The Ligasure system is a hand held surgical device that uses heat to seal blood vessels during surgery. It has been a tested and accepted technology in abdominal surgery and it is now being applied to surgery of the thyroid gland because it is faster than the traditional method of tying blood vessels that a surgeon must do manually. To remove the thyroid gland safely the surgeon must dissect the gland away from the recurrent laryngeal nerve which controls the vocal cords and patient's voice. Protecting this nerve is the key step in all thyroid surgery as its damage can permanently alter a patient's voice and even obstruct the airway. At this time the worldwide accepted rate of nerve injury is 2 in 100 patients. The hypothesis of this study is that the nerve injury rates for surgery using the Ligasure device are similar to that seen when surgeons manually tie blood vessels. The investigators protocol will evaluate the function of the recurrent laryngeal nerve after removing the thyroid gland using the Ligasure device in comparison to the traditional method where the surgeon manually ties blood vessels. In this study, for patients undergoing total thyroidectomy for a benign condition, each patient will be randomized to have one lobe of thyroid (left or right) removed using manual tying of blood vessels and the other side will have the surgeon use the Ligasure device to seal blood vessels. Every patient has a pre- and post-operative independent assessment of vocal cord function using nasopharyngoscopy to ensure that the vocal cords are working normally prior to surgery and also to document vocal cord dysfunction if there is an injury to the recurrent laryngeal nerve. The investigators intent is to show that the Ligasure system is a safe method to sealing vessels in thyroid surgery and that the thermal dispersion of this device does not pose a significant increase in risk to the recurrent laryngeal nerve

To compare the accuracy of the conventional Ultrasound 'TI-RADS', US elastography, DWI MRI, and its ADC value in characterization and differentiation of thyroid nodules.

We aim to study the effect of local anesthetic when used in conjunction with general anesthesia during thyroidectomy or parathyroidectomy. We hypothesize there is equivalent pain control between bilateral superficial cervical plexus block and local wound infiltration when used in conjunction with a general anesthetic.

Use of a high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in patients with non-malignant thyroid nodules.

This study evaluates the efficacy of the HIFU for the treatment of benign thyroid nodules with the FastScan version using assessment of patient experience and adverse event reporting.

Clinical trial with a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design; enrolls approximately 30 euthyroid patients with benign thyroid nodules, who will receive for 6 weeks a spirulina-based supplement, and for another 6 weeks placebo. Thyroid ecography will be performed three times for each patient, and blood tests including TSH, free T4, free T3 and ceruloplasmin/Copper will also be performed 3 times for each patient. It is expected that a decrease in the thyroid nodules occurs with the supplement administration. Compared with placebo there will be a decrease of at least 20% in the volume or the largest diameter of the nodules during the 6-week administration of the supplement.