Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Amiodarone is a commonly prescribed antiarrythmic drug. It can cause potentially serious adverse effects involving the thyroid gland, lungs, liver and eyes. It is recommended that patients on amiodarone have regular monitoring tests.Methods: We conducted an audit of patients who were prescribed amiodarone by various physicians in our hospital between January 2007 and March 2008. The data was obtained from the patients case notes. We looked ...

For patients taking thyroxine replacement guidelines generally recommend aiming for a target TSH within the laboratory reference range. The evidence for this guidance is generally based on an extrapolation of data from patients with endogenous subclinical thyroid disease. We aimed to examine the safety of having a TSH which was either suppressed (≤0.03 mU/l), low (0.04–0.4 mU/l), ‘normal’ (0.4–4.0 mU/l) or raised (>4.0 mU/l) in a population-based ...

Hypothyroidism delays bone development, whilst thyrotoxicosis causes osteoporosis. Recent studies have challenged understanding of skeletal responses to thyroid hormone by proposing TSH as a negative regulator of bone turnover and suggesting bone loss in hyperthyroidism results from TSH deficiency and not T3-excess. To investigate, we characterised mice with mutations or deletions of the genes encoding T3 receptor (TR) α and TRβ. Endochondral ossification was retarde...

Childhood hypothyroidism results in severely delayed skeletal development whereas adult thyrotoxicosis is associated with a 3–4 fold increase in osteoporotic fracture. To investigate molecular mechanisms underlying these abnormalities we characterized the skeletal phenotypes of mice harboring dominant negative mutations (TRα1PV/+, TRα1R384C/+, TRβPV/PV) or deletions (TRα0/0, TRβ−/−) of the genes encoding TRα and TRβ. Endochon...

Some patients use liothyronine as thyroid replacement therapy as an alternative to L-thyroxine. Trials have examined the potential benefits, but there is little data looking at the relative safety of these two agents. All patients receiving thyroid replacement therapy between 1993 and 2014 in Tayside were included in a cohort study (n=34 355; 319 500 patient years of follow up). Overall 33 955 patients received only L-thyroxine, and 327 r...

Recent controversial studies in mice imply that TSH inhibits bone remodelling, suggesting TSH-deficiency rather than thyroid hormone excess causes bone loss in thyrotoxicosis. Measurement of the TRH-stimulated rise in TSH following three days administration of graded doses of T3 is the gold-standard for determining resistance to thyroid hormone (RTH). During this test, T3 excess coupled with suppressed TSH should induce high bone turnover, whilst administration of TRH causes a...

Aim: We aimed to undertake a population-based approach to describing the prevalence and incidence of chronic hypoparathyroidism. There are very few reports on the epidemiology of this condition.Methods: Data linkage of all biochemistry, hospital admissions, prescribing and death records was undertaken in Tayside Scotland (population 400,000) from 1988 to 2015. Patients with at least 3 serum calcium concentrations below the reference range f...

Aim: We aimed to investigate mortality and morbidity in patients who were identified with primary hypoparathyroidism, post-surgical and non-surgical hypoparathyroidism.Methods: The patients who were previously identified with hypoparathyroidism, were linked to hospital admission dataset, renal registry, biochemistry dataset and prescribing dataset. In this study, death and 6 morbidities; cataract, circulatory system, infection, fracture, me...

Aim: We aimed to undertake a population-based approach to describing the prevalence and incidence of chronic hypoparathyroidism. There are very few reports on the epidemiology of this condition.Methods: Data linkage of all biochemistry, hospital admissions, prescribing and death records was undertaken in Tayside Scotland (population 400,000) from 1988 to 2015. Patients with at least 3 serum calcium concentrations below the reference range f...

Aim: We aimed to investigate mortality and morbidity in patients who were identified with primary hypoparathyroidism, post-surgical and non-surgical hypoparathyroidism.Methods: The patients who were previously identified with hypoparathyroidism, were linked to hospital admission dataset, renal registry, biochemistry dataset and prescribing dataset. In this study, death and 6 morbidities; cataract, circulatory system, infection, fracture, me...