Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI)-Mass Spectrometry imaging (MSI) has been applied in various diseases aimed to biomarkers discovery. In this study diagnosis and prognosis of Hashimoto Thyroiditis (HT) in cytopathology by MALDI-MSI has been investigated. Specimens from a routine series of subjects who underwent UltraSound-guided thyroid Fine Needle Aspirations (FNAs) were used. The molecular classifier trained in a previous study was modified to include HT as a separate entity in the group of benign lesions, in the diagnostic proteomic triage of thyroid nodules. The statistical analysis confirmed the existence of signals that HT shares with hyperplastic lesions and others that are specific and characterize this subgroup. Statistically relevant HT-related peaks were included in the model. Then, the discriminatory capability of the classifier was tested in a second validation phase, showing a good agreement with cytological diagnoses. The possibility to overlap the molecular signatures of both the lymphocytes and epithelial cells components (ROIs or pixel-by-pixel analysis) confirmed the composite proteomic background of HT. These results open the way to their possible translation as alternative serum biomarkers of this autoimmune condition.

基质辅助激光解吸/电离（MALDI）-质谱成像（MSI）已应用于各种疾病中，旨在发现生物标志物。在这项研究中，已研究了通过MALDI-MSI在细胞病理学中对桥本甲状腺炎（HT）的诊断和预后。使用了接受超声引导的甲状腺细针穿刺术（FNA）的常规受试者的标本。对先前研究中训练的分子分类器进行了修改，将HT作为良性病变组中的一个单独实体包括在甲状腺结节的诊断蛋白质组学分类中。统计分析证实了HT与增生性病变以及其他特有且表征该亚组的信号存在。模型中包含统计相关的HT相关峰。然后，分类器的辨别能力在第二个验证阶段进行了测试，表明与细胞学诊断具有良好的一致性。淋巴细胞和上皮细胞成分的分子标记重叠的可能性（ROI或逐像素分析）证实了HT的复合蛋白质组学背景。这些结果为这种自身免疫疾病的替代血清生物标志物打开了可能的翻译途径。