Stereology of the thyroid gland in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) in comparison with human (Homo sapiens): quantitative and functional implications.

The mammalian thyroid gland maintains basal metabolism in tissues for optimal function. Determining thyroid volume is important in assessing growth and involution. Volume estimation is also important in stereological studies. Direct measurements of colloid volume and nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratio of the follicular cells may provide important information about thyroid gland function such as hormone storage and secretion, which helps understand the changes at morphological and functional levels. The present study determined the colloid volume using simple stereological principle and the nuclear-to-cytoplasmic ratio of 4 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins and 2 human thyroid glands. In both dolphin and human thyroid glands, the size of the follicles tended to be quite variable. The distribution of large and small follicles within the thyroid gland was also found to be random in both the dolphin and human thyroid gland; however, the size of follicles appeared to decrease as a function of increasing age in the dolphin thyroid gland. The mean colloid volume of the dolphin thyroid gland and human thyroid gland was 1.22×10(5) µm(3) and 7.02×10(5) µm(3) respectively. The dolphin and human subjects had a significant difference in the mean colloid volume. The mean N/C ratio of the dolphin thyroid follicular epithelia and human follicular epithelia was 0.50 and 0.64 respectively. The dolphin and human subjects had a significant difference in the mean N/C ratio. This information contributes to understanding dolphin thyroid physiology and its structural adaptations to meet the physical demands of the aquatic environment, and aids with ultrasonography and corrective therapy in live subjects.

Three-dimensional elastography for cervical lymph node volume measurements: a study to investigate feasibility, accuracy and reliability.

This study investigated the feasibility of using three-dimensional (3-D) elastography in measuring cervical lymph node volume and compared the accuracy and reliability of 3-D elastography and 3-D grayscale ultrasound in measurement of ill-defined cervical nodes. Eighteen porcine lymph nodes from the neck were embedded in tissue-mimicking phantoms and scanned with the two ultrasound techniques. Ultrasound measurements were compared with the volume determined by water-displacement method to evaluate measurement accuracy. Inter-observer reproducibility and intra-observer repeatability of measurements were evaluated. Four patients with enlarged neck nodes were included to evaluate intra-observer repeatability of ultrasound measurements. Results demonstrated that lymph nodes that appeared ill-defined on grayscale ultrasound showed well-defined boundaries on elastography. 3-D elastography has higher measurement accuracy (84.2%), reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC = 0.909) and repeatability (ICC = 0.964-0.988) than does 3-D grayscale ultrasound (62.2%, 0.777 and 0.863-0.906 respectively). As a conclusion, 3-D elastography is accurate and reliable in volume measurement of ill-defined lymph nodes and has potential for accurate assessment of lymph node volume.