Endocrine Abstracts

It has been known for a long time that both hypo- and hyperthyroidism are associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality. In recent years, it has also become clear that minor variations in thyroid function, including subclinical dysfunction and even variation in thyroid function within the reference range, can have important effects on clinical endpoints, such as bone mineral density, depression, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular mortality. Serum thyroid par...

Adequate thyroid hormone (TH) levels are essential for normal growth and differentiation, for the regulation of energy metabolism, and for the physiological function of virtually all human tissues. Epidemiological evidence shows that minor variation in TH serum levels, even within the normal range, can have important effects on different TH related clinical endpoints, such as bone mineral density, atrial fibrillation, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular mortality.<p clas...

In healthy subjects, there is a substantial variability in circulating concentrations of thyroid hormone (TH) between individuals, whereas the variability within an individual over time is usually within a narrow range. It is estimated that about 65% of this variation is genetically determined, resulting in a thyroid function set-point that is different for each individual. The major causative genes are, however, not well established.The biological activ...

Introduction: Although hCG is an important determinant of gestational thyroid function, it is unknown to what extent hCG is a risk factor for thyroid disease and we also lack knowledge on which characteristics influence the thyroidal response to hCG stimulation.Methods: hCG, TSH, FT4 and TPOAbs were measured in 5435 pregnant women (<18 weeks) in a prospective cohort. Subclinical disease entities were defined according to P2.5-P97.5 in TPOAb negative ...

Context: Preeclampsia is a leading cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality worldwide, affecting 2–8% of all pregnancies. We have previously shown that women with high-normal levels of FT4 during early pregnancy have a 2.1-fold increased risk of preeclampsia – but there was no apparent association with low TSH. However, the thyroid is stimulated by human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) during early pregnancy and therefore we hypothesized that women with h...

Objective: Defining thyroid function test abnormalities in pregnancy is complicated by changes in maternal physiology. Ideally, reference intervals (RIs) should be population-based and pregnancy-specific. Large methodological differences between published reports limit the adoption of such RIs into clinical practice.Methods: The study was performed in the Consortium on Thyroid and Pregnancy. In line with current consensus and the 2017 American Thyroid As...

Background: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a rare disease accounting for 1-3% of all thyroid carcinomas. Unfortunately, most patients present with metastasized disease: 70% with cervical lymph node metastasis and 5-10% with distant metastasis. Survival strongly correlates with stage of disease at diagnosis, illustrating the need for early diagnosis. Calcitonin is a well-established tumour marker for MTC, but its use in the screening phase is limited by a high rate of fal...

Background: Recent studies suggest enhanced peripheral thyroid hormone metabolism as an explanation for the changes in thyroid hormone levels in patient treated with Sorafenib.Methods: In this single centre, prospective, observational cohort study 60 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma were treated with Sorafenib. Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) were measured at baseline (time-0), at 6 weeks (time-1) and at the end of therap...

Background: The interest in the potential effect of thyromimetics in lowering serum cholesterol is growing. Thyroid hormone actions on lipid metabolism are exerted in the liver and mediated by the T3 receptor TRβ1. The creation of molecules transported into hepatocytes by liver-specific transporters can increase the liver selectivity of thyromimetics. Sodium taurocholate co-transporting polypeptide (NTCP), a solute carrier protein primarily expressed on the basolateral me...

Introduction: POU1F1 is a pituitary transcription factor, critical for differentiation of pituitary somatotrophs, thyrotrophs and lactotrophs. POU1F1 expression depends on the presence of PROP1, which attenuates expression of transcriptional repressor HESX1. Previous mutation screening of POU1F1 coding exons in our cohort of patients with combined pituitary hormone deficiency (CPHD) showed POU1F1 mutations in only 1% of the families. We hypo...