Endocrine Abstracts

The first treatment for hypothyroidism introduced at the end of the 19th century was animal thyroid extract which contained both T3and T4. Because of variable potency it was widely replaced by synthetic T4 from the 1960s in high doses of 200-400 ug daily to compensate for the lack of T3. The development of TSH assays showed that a dose of T4 of 100-150 ug daily was usually adequate to restore serum TSH to normal. Because a...

For the last 15 years, I have suffered from the respectable addiction of collecting modern Scottish art. During that same period I have become alarmed by the many influences which have conspired, not always by chance, to reduce the professionalism of doctors. The intention is to illustrate my many prejudices in respect of issues, ranging from the European Working Time Directive to national guidelines, from loss of paternalism to the difficulties in conducting observational cli...

Iodine-131 is increasingly the treatment of choice of the hyperthyroidism of Graves’ disease and nodular goitre and is gaining popularity as a means of achieving significant goitre shrinkage in euthyroid patients. There is, however, anxiety among a significant number of patients about the dangers of radiation in general and it is these same patients who pose the question of whether prolonged treatment with antithyroid drugs is an acceptable alternative. In the past, physi...

Introduction: Subclinical hypothyroidism (subhypo) is linked to gestational hypertension (gestHT) and preeclampsia. Thyroid hormones have major influence on mitochondrial activity and the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) reflects the functional status of the mitochondria.Aim: The aim was to estimate whether mitochondrial function is impaired in pregnant women with or without gestHT.Methods: We included third trimester pregnan...

Introduction: Hyponatremia (serum sodium ≤135 mmol/l), the most common electrolyte disorder encountered, has been associated with increased mortality in patients with particularly cancer, heart failure, chronic kidney and liver disease. However, evidence of the clinical implications in broader populations is scarce, and uncertain due to confounding from preexisting disease. We aimed to examine the association between admission-hyponatremia and 30-day mortality in acute n...

Introduction: Patients who do not develop overt hypothyroidism after hemithyroidectomy for benign euthyroid goiter have permanently increased serum levels of TSH and decreased levels of thyroid hormones within the reference ranges. Thyroid hormones are major regulators of mitochondrial function, and the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) can be measured by flow cytometry analysis of living cells as the fluorescence intensity of stained peripheral mononuclear blood cells (M...

Few population-based data exist on the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MS) its components, and its association with subclinical inflammation and insulin resistance among patients newly diagnosed with type two diabetes (T2D).We examined the MS according to IDF criteria by linkage primary data (waist circumference, fasting blood glucose, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP)) with variables from the Danish diabetes database for adults (blood ...