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Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques using advanced functional materials are attracting strong attention in the field of all solid-state lithium batteries (ASSBs) since they are considered as innovative approaches that will pave the way for cheaper, safer, and customizable batteries with exceptional volumetric energy density. In the present work, stereolithography (SLA) is presented as a suitable technique to produce complex-shaped Li1.5Al0.5Ge1.5P3O12 (LAGP) full-ceramic electrolytes from glass feedstock. Printed electrolytes showed an ionic conductivity in good agreement with LAGP fabricated by conventional techniques (σ = 6.42 × 10−5 S cm−2). Moreover, 3D printed LAGP corrugated membranes with interfacial area increased by 15% were fabricated showing an equivalent reduction of the area specific resistance. Symmetrical cells with lithium metal electrodes were used to study the stripping and plating behaviour of LAGP printed electrolytes coated with a germanium protective interlayer deposited via thermal evaporation. The symmetric cells showed a stable cycling performance over 250 hours demonstrating the stability of the designed cells. The innovative approach reported here represents the first step for the next generation of ASSBs based on LAGP, offering new degrees of freedom for the manufacturing of full ceramic electrolytes with a complex shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arsenic (As) is an element with important environmental and human health implications due to its toxic properties. It is naturally occurring since it is contained in minerals, but it can also be enriched and distributed in the environment by anthropogenic activities. This paper reports on the historic As contamination of agricultural soils in one of the most important national relevance site for contamination in Italy, the so-called SIN Brescia-Caffaro, in the city of Brescia, northern Italy. These agricultural areas received As through the use of irrigation waters from wastewater coming from a factory of As-based pesticides (lead and calcium arsenates, sodium arsenite). Pesticide production started in 1920 and ended in the '70. Concentrations in the areas are generally beyond the legal threshold values for different soil uses and are up to >200 mg/kg. Arsenic contamination was studied to assess the long-time trend and the dynamics related to the vertical movement of As down to 1 m depth and its horizontal diffusion with surface irrigation in the entire field. Arsenic fractionation analysis (solid phase speciation by sequential extraction procedure) was also performed on samples collected from these areas and employed in greenhouse experiments with several plant species to evaluate the long-term contamination and the role of plant species in modifying As availability in soil. The results of this work can help in the evaluation of the conditions controlling the vertical transfer of As towards surface aquifers, the bioaccumulation likelihood in the agricultural food chain and the selection of sustainable remediation techniques such as phytoextraction., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

We aimed to understand the effect of mulching (i.e., cutting and leaving the crushed biomass to decompose in situ) on above- and below-ground plant functional traits and whether this practice may be a potential tool for enhancing the phytoremediation of lowland hay meadows. To this aim, we evaluated at the community level seven years of mulching application in a PCBs and HMs soil-polluted Site of National Interest (SIN Brescia-Caffaro) through the analysis of the floristic composition and the above- and below-ground plant traits. We found that the abandonment of agricultural activities led to a marked increase in the soil organic carbon and pH, and the over-imposed mulching additionally induced a slight increase in soil nutrients. Mulching favored the establishment of a productive plant community characterized by a more conservative-resource strategy, a higher biomass development, and lower plasticity through an adaptative convergence between above- and below-ground organs. In particular, the analysis of the root depth distribution highlighted the key role of roots living in the upper soil layer (10 cm). Mulching did not show a significant effect on plant species known to be effective in terms of PCB phytoremediation. However, the mulching application appears to be a promising tool for enhancing the root web that functions as the backbone for the proliferation of microbes devoted to organic contaminants' degradation and selects a two-fold number of plant species known to be metal-tolerant. However, besides these potential positive effects of the mulching application, favoring species with a higher biomass development, in the long term, may lead to a biodiversity reduction and thus to potential consequences also on the diversity of native species important for the phytoremediation., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Dalle Fratte, Montagnoli, Anelli, Armiraglio, Beatrice, Ceriani, Lipreri, Miali, Nastasio and Cerabolini.)

Studies about biodegradation potential in soils often refer to artificially contaminated and simplified systems, overlooking the complexity associated with contaminated sites in a real context. This work aims to provide a holistic view on microbiome assembly and functional diversity in the model site SIN Brescia-Caffaro (Italy), characterized by historical and uneven contamination by organic and inorganic compounds. Here, physical and chemical analyses and microbiota characterization were applied on one-hundred-twenty-seven soil samples to unravel the environmental factors driving bacterial community assembly and biodegradation potential in three former agricultural fields. Chemical analyses showed a patchy distribution of metals, metalloids and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and allowed soil categorization according to depth and area of collections. Likewise, the bacterial community structure, described by molecular fingerprinting and 16S rRNA gene analyses, was significantly different according to collection site and depth. Pollutant concentrations (i.e., hexachloro-biphenyls, arsenic and mercury), nitrogen content and parameters related to soil texture were identified as main drivers of microbiota assembly, being significantly correlated to bacterial community composition. Moreover, bacteria putatively involved in the aerobic degradation of PCBs were enriched over the total bacterial community in topsoils, where the highest activity was recorded using fluorescein hydrolysis as proxy. Metataxonomic analyses revealed the presence of bacteria having metabolic pathways related to PCB degradation and tolerance to heavy metals and metalloids in the topsoil samples collected in all areas. Overall, the provided dissection of soil microbiota structure and its degradation potential in the SIN Brescia-Caffaro can contribute to target specific areas for rhizoremediation implementation. Metagenomics studies could be implemented in the future to understand if specific degradative pathways are present in historically polluted sites characterized by the co-occurrence of multiple classes of contaminants., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

Plant roots can accumulate organic chemicals, including PCBs, and this could be relevant in spreading chemicals through the food chain. To estimate such uptake, several equations are available in the literature, mostly developed in lab conditions, to obtain the root concentration factor (RCF). Here, a long-term (18 months) greenhouse experiment, using an aged, contaminated soil, was performed to reproduce root uptake in field-like conditions and to account for the ecological variability of exposure during the entire life cycle. Specific growth strategies (i.e., annual vs. perennial), root development (e.g., timing of root production and decaying), and soil parameters (e.g., dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and the particulate organic carbon (POC)) may interfere with the uptake of contaminants into the roots of plants. In this study, we investigate the effects of these factors on the RCF, obtained for 79 PCBs. New predictive equations were calculated for 5 different plants species at four different growth times (from few months to 1.5 years) and stages (growing vs maturity). The relationships highlighted a species-specific and time-dependent accumulation of PCB in plants roots, with higher RCFs in summer than in fall for some species, and the relevant influence of DOC and POC in affecting root uptake., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The enhancement of solid oxide cell (SOC) oxygen electrode performance through the generation of nanocomposite electrodes via infiltration using wet-chemistry processes has been widely studied in recent years. An efficient oxygen electrode consists of a porous backbone and an active catalyst, which should provide ionic conductivity, high catalytic activity and electronic conductivity. Inkjet printing is a versatile additive manufacturing technique, which can be used for reliable and homogeneous functionalization of SOC electrodes via infiltration for either small- or large-area devices. In this study, we implemented the utilization of an inkjet printer for the automatic functionalization of different gadolinium-doped ceria scaffolds, via infiltration with ethanol:water-based La 1-x Sr x Co 1-y Fe y O 3- δ (LSCF) ink. Scaffolds based on commercial and mesoporous Gd-doped ceria (CGO) powders were used to demonstrate the versatility of inkjet printing as an infiltration technique. Using yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) commercial electrolytes, symmetrical LSCF/LSCF-CGO/YSZ/LSCF-CGO/LSCF cells were fabricated via infiltration and characterized by SEM-EDX, XRD and EIS. Microstructural analysis demonstrated the feasibility and reproducibility of the process. Electrochemical characterization lead to an ASR value of ≈1.2 Ω cm 2 at 750 °C, in the case of nanosized rare earth-doped ceria scaffolds, with the electrode contributing ≈0.18 Ω cm 2 . These results demonstrate the feasibility of inkjet printing as an infiltration technique for SOC fabrication.

The long term vertical and horizontal mobility of mercury (Hg) in soils of agricultural areas of a historically contaminated Italian National Relevance Site (SIN Brescia-Caffaro) was investigated. The contamination resulted from the continuous discharge of Hg in irrigation waters by an industrial plant (Caffaro S.p.A), equipped with a mercury-cell chlor-alkali process. The contamination levels with depth ranged from about 20 mg/kg dry weight (d.w.) of soil in the top (plow) layer to less than 0.1 mg/kg d.w. at 1 m depth. The concentrations varied also spatially, up to one order of magnitude within the same field and showing a decreasing trend from the Hg source (i.e., irrigation ditches). The concentration profiles and gradients measured were explained considering Hg loading, soil properties, such as the texture, organic carbon content, pH and cation exchange capacity. A Selective Sequential Extraction (SSE) was also applied on soil samples from an ad hoc greenhouse experiment to investigate the role of different plant species in influencing Hg speciation in soils. Although most of the extracted Hg was included in scarcely mobile or immobile forms, some plant species (i.e., alfalfa) showed to importantly increase the soluble and exchangeable fractions with respect to the unplanted control soils, thus affecting mobility and potential bioavailability of Hg., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper presents a new dataset of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) half-lives in soil. Data were obtained from a greenhouse experiment performed with an aged contaminated soil under semi-field conditions, collected from a National Relevance Site (SIN) located in Northern Italy (SIN Brescia-Caffaro). Ten different treatments (combination of seven plant species and different soil conditions) were considered together with the respective controls (soil without plants). PCB concentration reduction in soil was measured over a period of 18 months to evaluate the ability of plants to stimulate the biodegradation of these compounds. Tall fescue, tall fescue cultivated together with pumpkin and tall fescue amended with compost reduced more than the 50% of the 79 measured PCB congeners, including the most chlorinated ones (octa to deca-PCBs). However, the data obtained showed that no plant species was uniquely responsible for the effective degradation of all isomeric classes and congeners. The obtained half-lives ranged from 1.3 to 5.6 years and were up to a factor of 8 lower compared to generic HL values reported in literature. This highlighted the importance of cultivation and plant-microbe interactions in speeding up the PCB biodegradation. This new dataset could contribute to substantially improve the predictions of soil remediation time, multimedia fate and the long-range transport of PCBs. Additionally, the half-lives obtained here can also be used in the evaluation of the food chain transfer of these chemicals, and finally the exposure and potential for effects on ecosystems., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The agricultural areas of a historically contaminated National Relevance Site (SIN Brescia Caffaro) in Italy are an ideal case for studying the long term vertical and horizontal movement of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in soil. Here, a former large producer of PCBs (Caffaro S.p.A.) discharged its wastewaters, contaminated by PCBs and other chemicals, to a ditch used for about 80 years as source of irrigation waters for the adjacent agricultural areas. This caused a spread of contamination along both a vertical and a horizontal soil gradient. PCB concentrations of about 80 congeners, including PCB 209, peculiar of Caffaro production, were measured in three areas, selected for their different soil properties and cultivation history. The contamination levels with depth ranged from about 30 mg/kg dry weight (d.w.) of soil in the top (plow) layer to less than 0.1 mg/kg d.w. at the depth of 1 m. The concentrations varied also horizontally, since each field was surface irrigated from the short edge of each field, showing that PCBs could spread with length halving the initial concentrations in the topsoil only after about 30-35 m. The concentration gradients detected were explained considering the historic soil use and its change with time, the pedological properties as well as PCB physico-chemical parameters and halflives, developing equations which could be employed as guidance tools for evaluating PCBs (and similar chemicals) movement and direct further studies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this paper, a new data set of polychlorinated dibenzo- p -dioxin and dibenzofuran (PCDD/Fs) half-lives (HLs) in soil is presented. Data are derived from a greenhouse experiment performed with an aged contaminated soil under semi-field conditions, obtained from a National Relevance Site (SIN) located in Northern Italy (SIN Brescia-Caffaro). Ten different treatments (combination of seven plant species with different soil conditions) were considered together with the respective controls (soil without plants). The ability of the plants to stimulate the biodegradation of these compounds was evaluated by measuring the PCDD/F concentration reduction in soil over a period of 18 months. The formation of new bound residues was excluded by using roots as a passive sampler of bioaccessible concentrations. The best treatment which significantly reduced PCDD/F concentrations in soil was the one with Festuca arundinacea (about 11-24% reduction, depending on the congener). These decreases reflected in HLs ranging from 2.5 to 5.8 years. Simulations performed with a dynamic air-vegetation-soil model (SoilPlusVeg) confirmed that these HLs were substantially due to biodegradation rather than other loss processes. Because no coherent PCDD/F degradation HL data sets are currently available for soil, they could substantially improve the predictions of soil remediation time, long-range transport, and food chain transfer of these chemicals using multimedia fate models.

This paper describes the results of a rhizoremediation greenhouse experiment planned to select the best plant species and soil management for the bioremediation of weathered polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). We evaluated the ability of different plant species to stimulate activity and diversity of the soil microbial community leading to the reduction of PCB concentrations in a heavily contaminated soil (at mg kg-1 dw level), of the national priority site for remediation (SIN) "Brescia-Caffaro" in Italy. Biostimulation was determined in large size (6kg) pots, to reflect semi-field conditions with a soil/root volume ratio larger than in most rhizoremediation experiments present in the literature. In total, 10 treatments were tested in triplicates comparing 7 plant species (grass and trees) and 5 soil/cultivation conditions (i.e., only one plant species, plant consociation, redox cycle, compost or ammonium thiosulfate addition) with the appropriate unplanted controls. After 18months of biostimulation the overall reduction of total PCBs varied between 14 and 20%. Microbial analysis revealed a shift in the microbial community structure over time and showed that all the planted treatments significantly enhanced microbial hydrolytic activity and the abundance of bacterial populations, including potential PCB degraders, in the soil surrounding plant roots. The plant species most effective in reducing the contaminant concentrations were Festuca arundinacea cultivated adding compost or in consociation with Cucurbita pepo ssp. pepo and Medicago sativa cultivated with Rhizobium spp. and mycorrhizal fungi; they reduced total PCB concentrations of about 20% and showed the significant depletion of a high number of PCB congeners (29, 37 and 23, respectively, out of the 79 measured). Our results suggest that these plant species are particularly efficient in increasing soil PCB bioavailability and in stimulating microbial degradation. They could be used in field rhizoremediation strategies to enhance the natural attenuation process and reduce PCB levels in historically contaminated sites., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Cities and contaminated areas can be primary or secondary sources of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and other chemicals, into air and soil and can influence the regional level of some of these pollutants. In a contaminated site, the evaluation of such emissions can be crucial in the choice of the remediation technology to be adopted. In the city of Brescia (Northern Italy), more than 100 ha of agricultural areas were contaminated with PCBs, PCDD/Fs and heavy metals, originating from the activities of a former PCB factory. In order to evaluate the current emissions of PCBs and PCDD/Fs from the contaminated site, in a location where other current sources are present, we compared measured and predicted air concentrations, resulting from chemical volatilization from soils as well as fingerprints of Brescia soils and of soils contaminated by specific sources. The results confirm that the contaminated area is still a current and important secondary source of PCBs to the air, and to a lesser extent of PCDFs (especially the more volatile), but not for PCDDs. PCBs in soils have fingerprints similar to highly chlorinated mixtures, indicating contamination by these mixtures and/or a long weathering process. PCB 209 is also present at important levels. PCDD fingerprints in soil cannot be related to current emission sources, while PCDFs are compatible to industrial and municipal waste incineration, although weathering and/or natural attenuation may have played a role in modifying such soil fingerprints. Finally, we combined chemical and microbiological analyses to provide an integrated approach to evaluate soil fingerprints and their variation in a wider perspective, which accounts for the mutual effects between contamination and soil microbiota, a pivotal hint for addressing in situ bioremediation activities., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

It's widely recognized the important role that nurses can have in identifying and managing problems of various kinds resulting from the illness and treatment in survivor cancer patients, so that clinical nursing follow-up programs for cancer patients are now widely diffused internationally. The aim of the following study is the detection of the main physical, emotional, social-familial problems of women with breast cancer followed by the Italian Switzerland Breast Unit, after the end of treatment in order to better target the activation of a nursing follow-up program. This is a descriptive study. Data were collected through a questionnaire mailed to all patients who underwent surgery in the Breast Unit from 2005 to 2009 for a total of 527 patients. The statistical analysis of data was carried out on a total of 202 patients. Fatigue is the physical problem most highlighted by the sample of women (52%), followed by bone pain and / or muscle pain (45.5%) and hot flushes (44.1%). On an emotional level, fear and worry are reported by 40.1% of women, followed by sadness reported by 31.3% of women. Regarding the socio-familial aspect, one of 5 women shows working difficulties (21.2%). Statistically significant correlations are highlighted between some problems and some contextual variables (age, type of treatment, time from the end of treatment). The study has allowed to characterize this population in the specific context and to structure a nursing follow-up program which is active since January 2012.

The performance of the ABX Pentra 400, a new multiparametric analyser available for routine and specialised clinical chemistry analyses, was evaluated according to the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) and Valtec protocols. Substrate concentrations and enzyme activities were determined by spectrophotometric measurement after coloured reaction or UV detection-based reactions; electrolyte concentrations were determined with ion-selective electrodes, and specific protein concentrations were assayed by immunoturbidimetry. In total, 32 of the most common clinical chemistry parameters were evaluated under simulated routine conditions. The analytical performance of the system and the quality of the ABX Pentra reagent line were both examined in a single-site study. The ABX Pentra 400 was compared with the Olympus AU640, Konelab-Konepro, Beckman Coulter-Immage and Beckman Coulter-Access 2, depending on the tests available on these analysers. The coefficient of variation (CV) values were within expected values. Coefficients of correlation showed high correlation between the analysers compared. The influence of interfering substances was moderate. The practicability of the system was good. We conclude that good reliability and practicability make the ABX Pentra 400 system suitable for laboratories with various needs.

Generalized interictal EEG discharges are influenced by a biphasic (phase A and B) modality of arousal control during non-rapid eye movement (REM) sleep termed cyclic alternating pattern (CAP). Each phase A and the following phase B compose a CAP cycle. The percentage ratio of total CAP time to total non-REM sleep time is the CAP rate, a sleep parameter that measures the instability and fragmentation of sleep. Since CAP exerts a powerful influence on generalized interictal EEG discharges during sleep, the polysomnograms of seven epileptic patients affected by a clinically active form of primary generalized epilepsy were matched with those of seven healthy volunteers of the same age and sex to assess the influence of interictal discharges on sleep organization. No remarkable differences emerged when the traditional polysomnographic parameters were compared between the two groups. However, the epileptic patients showed significantly higher CAP rate values (52.7 vs. 34.6%; p less than 0.003), indicating a greater arousal instability in the sleep records of these subjects. Within the epileptic group, the CAP cycles that included at least one interictal paroxysm were significantly longer than those without EEG discharges (31.2 vs. 25.4 s; p less than 0.007). The selective lengthening of CAP cycles is likely due to an exaggeration of the natural activating power of phase A when coupled with EEG paroxysms and an intensification of the inhibitory properties of the following phase B. The dynamic relationships and differences between spindles in animals, k-complexes, and slow-wave bursts in humans may have a functional linkage with epileptic phenomena during sleep.

The Cyclic Alternating Pattern (CAP) is a physiologic structure of normal non-REM (NREM) sleep, functionally correlated to long-lasting arousal instability. In 12 healthy volunteers, a continuous 45 dB (A) white noise induced no remarkable changes on the standard sleep parameters. However, compared to the baseline conditions, the acoustic perturbation determined a significant increase of the Cyclic Alternating Pattern Rate (CAPR), that measures the amount of CAP during sleep. Ten mg of zolpidem, a novel imidazopyridine hypnotic compound, did not modify the structure of unperturbed sleep, but induced a highly significant reduction of the increased values of CAP Rate due to white noise. The homeostatic function of CAP is stressed. CAPR appears to be a highly sensitive indicator of environmental modification during sleep.

Serum thyroglobulin (Tg) measurements in patients with treated differentiated thyroid cancer are usually well correlated with the presence or absence of residual or metastatic thyroid tissue. However, it is not rare to find a patient with detectable serum Tg levels but negative 131I whole-body scan (WBS) and no evidence of disease activity. To clarify the reason for this discrepancy, we decided to perform the WBS after the administration of a therapeutic dose of 131I in 17 consecutive patients in whom serum Tg was detectable while the WBS performed with a 5 mCi tracer dose was negative (12.6% of 135 patients studied with both WBS and serum Tg). The result of this study demonstrated that after this procedure the WBS became positive for significant residual or metastatic areas of radioiodine uptake in all patients but one. Such data indicate that in our patients the presence of circulating Tg is not a false-positive Tg result, but is due to the presence of residual or metastatic tissue that is not detected in the conventional WBS, that can be visualized using therapeutic doses. Preliminary follow-up data indicate that this procedure may also have therapeutic effect, although the relevance of this aspect remains to be established.

The utility of determining circulating neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in medullary thyroid carcinoma was assessed in 25 patients followed up for a mean period of 45.6 months. In 5 patients tested before any treatment serum NSE concentrations were in the normal range. After total thyroidectomy abnormally high serum NSE concentrations (more than 9.8 ng/ml) were found in 1/3 patients with normal calcitonin (CT) in remission, in 2/10 with elevated CT levels but no evidence of disease and in 9/12 with elevated CT levels and documented metastases. The mean (+/- SD) NSE value in this last group was 12.0 +/- 12.6 ng/ml, significantly higher than in the other groups (p less than 0.005). The time course of serum NSE in patients with long follow-up seems to indicate that serum NSE rises when a large tumor mass is present and usually parallels the pattern of circulating CT. Effective treatment of the metastases is usually followed by reduction of serum NSE. Thus, serum NSE can serve as an additional humoral marker for medullary thyroid carcinoma, its elevation being associated with important metastatic involvement and with a poor prognosis of the tumor.

Evidence has been accumulated that human thyroid microsomal/microvillar autoantigen (M) is expressed both in the cytoplasm and on the surface of thyroid follicular cells. The availability of this autoantigen to the immune system, possibly associated with abnormally expressed HLA-DR antigens may be relevant both to the triggering and to maintenance of thyroid autoimmune reactions. Preliminary biochemical characterization of M suggested that it was a glycoprotein with a mol. wt. of about 100-110 kD. recent studies carried out in our laboratories taking advantage of monoclonal antibodies provided evidence that the structure presently referred as M-Ag is represented by thyroid peroxidase (TPO). The identity between TPO and M is further supported by four-layer immunofluorescence analysis showing a complete overlap of the two antigens both in the surface and in the cytoplasm of thyroid cells and by the observation that the expression of M and TPO is similarly modulated by TSH, possibly through a cAMP-dependent mechanism.

In the present investigation we studied serum anti-thyroglobulin and anti-thyroid microsomal autoantibodies, measured by hemagglutination technique, in 600 patients with thyroid cancer seen by us from 1975 to 1985 (mean follow-up 46 months). Positive thyroglobulin antibodies and/or microsomal antibodies were found in 138 (23%) patients (23.9% with papillary, 25% with follicular, 16.1% with anaplastic, and 4.1% with medullary thyroid carcinomas). The incidence of positive tests was similar in each decade of life (ranging between 21.9% and 27.9%), whereas in a normal sex-matched population with no evidence of thyroid disease, the frequency of positive tests was very low in young people and increased to 23% in people older than 60. In 64 patients with no evidence of residual or metastasic thyroid tissue after surgery and radioiodine, initially positive antibody titres became negative in 54.6%, decreased in 32.8%, did not change in 3.1%, and increased in 9.3%. On the contrary, antibody titres of patients with persistent disease became undetectable in 8.3%, decreased in 16.6%, remained unchanged in 25%, and increased in 50%. The clinical course of differentiated thyroid cancer was unaffected by the presence of thyroid antibodies and no difference was found in the death rate between antibody-positive and antibody-negative patients (11.5% and 13.6%, respectively). In conclusion, our data indicate that: 1) autoimmune phenomena are not an infrequent finding in thyroid cancer; 2) as in non-malignant thyroid diseases, positive-antibody tests are more frequently observed in females than in males; 3) at variance with normal controls, no age-dependent increase in serum anti-thyroid antibodies was found in thyroid cancer; 4) the presence of metastatic thyroid tissue seems to be necessary to perpetuate the autoantibody synthesis, and 5) anti-thyroid autoantibodies are not a protective or worsening factor in the tumour outcome.