Thyroid disorders: It's very personal
Mary Ann Liebert
This issue of Thyroid is dedicated to the impact of personalized medicine on the management of thyroid disorders. This also signals the end of the era of "one size fits all" medicine. When a given patient diverges and has an unexpected outcome, physicians respond by tailoring their care accordingly.More

Half worldwide don't get enough vitamin D
United Press International
Half the people in North America and Western Europe get insufficient amounts of vitamin D, an international expert on vitamin D says. "Elsewhere, it is worse, given that two-thirds of the people are vitamin D-insufficient or deficient," Anthony Norman, a distinguished professor emeritus of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at the University of California, Riverside, says in a statement.More

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Patients taking Avandia should keep on doing so, doctor groups say
Los Angeles Times
Diabetics taking Avandia who are concerned about the drug following a recent decision by a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee to allow it to remain on the market should continue taking the drug until they can make arrangements with their physician to receive alternatives, three groups of physicians who treat diabetes said recently.More

Legislative Democrats push delay on methyl iodide use
The Sacramento Bee
Legislative Democrats want to delay approval of a potent farm fumigant that growers say is needed for healthy crops but critics call dangerous to humans. Injecting the issue into state budget negotiations, lawmakers are pushing a proposal to override a review process under way at the state Department of Pesticide Regulation.More

Severe hepatotoxicity, vasculitis linked to propylthiouracil in young people
Endocrine Today
Reports of severe hepatotoxicity and vasculitis were higher than expected in children and adolescents taking propylthiouracil compared with methimazole, according to a review of the safety profiles of both antithyroid drugs in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System. Scott A. Rivkees, MD, professor of pediatrics at Yale University, and Ana Szarfman, MD, PhD, medical officer at the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, analyzed more than 40 years of safety data collected in the Adverse Event Reporting System. More

Robotic surgery makes Dr. Giulianotti think about art
Global Times via Xinhua
Dr. Pier Cristoforo Giulianotti has completed more than 1,000 successful major procedures without laying a finger on a patient. Using hand controllers, foot pedals, and 3-D visualization, he performs complex surgeries sitting just a few meters away from the operating table. It happens that the sophisticated surgical system, consisting of three to four robotic arms and a remote console, is nicknamed after one of the Italian surgeon's most famous hometown visionaries -- Leonardo da Vinci.More

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Chemicals higher, thyroid hormone lower in pregnant women near e-waste recycling
Environmental Health News
Pregnant women who live in areas close to electronic waste dismantling sites have higher exposures to persistent organic pollutants and depressed thyroid hormone levels than those who live farther away from the facilities, finds a study that compares women in two regions of China. Despite the fact that they have no interactions with the e-waste facility, the recycling activities affect the women living adjacent to the sites. This study raises concerns about e-waste practices and health effects on both the mothers and the developing fetuses.More

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A first for the west: Robotic-assisted surgery for thyroid tumor
Medical News Today
UC Irvine Healthcare is the first medical center on the West Coast and the only one in California to perform robotic thyroidectomies, a procedure that removes the diseased gland without leaving a visible scar on the neck. Dr. Jason Kim, associate clinical professor of otolaryngology and a head and neck cancer specialist, has performed robotic-assisted surgery using the DaVinci Surgical System on three patients with thyroid tumors. More