European Thyroid Journal (Jun 2023)

TSH ≥30 mU/L may not be necessary for successful 131I remnant ablation in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer

  • Nianting Ju,
  • Liying Hou,
  • Hongjun Song,
  • Zhongling Qiu,
  • Yang Wang,
  • Zhenkui Sun,
  • Quanyong Luo,
  • Chentian Shen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1530/ETJ-22-0219
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 4
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

Read online

Purpose: To determine whether thyroid-stimulating hormone level ≥ 30 mU/L is necessary for radioiodine (131I) remnant ablation (RRA) in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), as well as its influencing factors and pre dictors. Methods: A total of 487 DTC patients were retrospectively enrolled in t his study. They were divided into two groups (TSH < 30 and ≥ 30 mU/L) and further divided into eight subgroups (0–<30, 30–<40, 40–<50, 50–<60, 60–<70, 70–<80, 80–<9 0, and 90–<100 mU/L). The simultaneous serum lipid level, successful rate of RRA and its influencing factors in different groups were analyzed. The receiver operating charac teristic curves derived from pre-ablative thyroglobulin (pre-Tg) and pre-Tg/TSH ratio w ere compared for RRA success prediction performance. Results: There was no statistical difference in success rates of RRA bet ween the two groups (P = 0.247) and eight subgroups (P = 0.685). Levels of total cholesterol (P < 0.001), triglyceride (P = 0.006), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P = 0.024), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P = 0.001), apolipoprotein B (P < 0.001), and apolipoprotein E (P = 0.002) were significantly higher while apoA/apoB ratio (P = 0.024) was significantly lower at TSH ≥ 30 mU/L group. Pre-Tg level, gender, and N stage were influenci ng factors for RRA. The area under the curve of pre-Tg level and pre-Tg/TS H ratio was 0.7611 (P < 0.0001) and 0.7340 (P < 0.0001) for all enrolled patients and 0.7310 ( P = 0.0145) and 0.6524 (P = 0.1068) for TSH < 30 mU/L, respectively. Conclusion: TSH ≥ 30 mU/L may not be necessary for the success of RRA. Patients with higher serum TSH levels prior to RRA will suffer from severer hy perlipidemia. Pre-Tg level could be used as a predictor for the success of RRA, especially when TSH < 30 mU/L.

Keywords