Related Experiment Video For Benign thyroid adenoma
Updated: Jan 6, 2026

Identification and Quantification of Deranged Metabolites in Critically Ill Patients Using NMR-Based Metabolomics
Published on: November 29, 2024
Metabolomics as a potential method for predicting thyroid malignancy in children and adolescents
Qing Zhou1, Li-Yong Zhang2, Chao Xie2
1Department of Pediatric Internal Medicine, Fujian Provincial Maternity and Children's Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, 350001, Fujian, China.
Purpose:
To identify potential metabolic biomarkers for distinguishing malignant and benign thyroid nodules in children and adolescents using a metabolomics approach.
Methods:
A total of 96 consecutive patients (median age 14.29 ± 2.31 years, range 9-18 years) who underwent thyroidectomy and 40 healthy controls were enrolled. Patients were assigned to the papillary thyroid carcinoma and benign thyroid adenoma groups according to postoperative pathologic biopsy. Plasma samples were preoperatively collected, and multivariate analysis was performed to identify differential metabolites.
Results:
Papillary thyroid carcinoma could be distinguished not only from healthy serum but also from benign thyroid adenoma according to the metabolic profiles. A total of 17 metabolites were identified. Compared with those from benign thyroid adenoma patients and healthy controls, the metabolites from papillary thyroid carcinoma patients, including leucine, lactate, alanine, glycine, acetate, lysine and choline, were increased, while glucose was decreased.
Conclusion:
The metabolomics method based on proton nuclear magnetic resonance has great potential for identifying papillary thyroid carcinoma in children and adolescents. Lactate and glycine may be used as potential serum markers for the diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma.
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