Imaging and relative quantification of 127I in human thyroid follicles by analytical ion microscope: characterization of benign thyroid epithelial tumors.

Analytical ion microscopy (AIM) can be used for imaging and relative quantification of chemical elements in tissue sections. We used this technique to assess the changes in 127I mapping within thyroid follicular cells and follicular lumina in benign thyroid epithelial abnormalities from 17 patients and in macroscopically normal perinodular tissue surrounding solitary cold nodules from 8 patients. Among the 17 patients, 9 had simple goiters, 5 had toxic nodular goiters, and 3 had hypofunctioning (cold) nodules. The tissue samples were fixed chemically and embedded in methacrylate resin to ensure preservation of organified iodine, and thin sections were analyzed by AIM. 127I was found in the follicular lumina and follicular epithelial cells of most specimens. The local concentration of 127I, which is proportional to the ratio of the two secondary ion beam currents of iodine and carbon, was evaluated in 30 follicular lumina and 30 follicular epithelial cells of each specimen. In normal tissue, the relative 127I concentration within follicular cells (mean, 0.72; range 0.01-8.30) was much lower than that in follicular lumina (mean, 4.63; range, 0.18-36.74). In simple goiter tissue, follicular lumen (mean, 0.57; range, 0.00-5.76), and cell (mean, 0.17; range, 0.002-1.82) relative 127I concentrations were below normal, but both distributions remained different. On the contrary, in toxic nodular goiter tissue the follicular cell relative 127I concentration (mean, 0.96; range, 0.003-27.3) largely overlapped that of the follicular lumina (mean, 2.1; range, 0.001-36.5). The cold nodules had the lowest relative follicular lumina 127I concentration (mean, 0.008; range, undetectable-0.07), and the relative cellular 127I concentrations were undetectable in 67%. These results demonstrate the capacity of AIM to characterize the functional activity of thyroid tissue without prior administration of radio-iodine.