Thyroid News

Health care professionals never truly finish their education. Degrees are just milestones along the way of a lifelong learning experience. That measure holds true for endocrinologists, which is why the Endocrine Society takes time each year to give out its Outstanding Educator Award. This year’s winner is Kenneth D. Burman, MD, the chief of the division of endocrinology at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and the director of the integrated endocrine training program at Georgetown University and MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.

NEW ORLEANS — Medical advancements have come a long way in the past century, but it is in the next 80 years that we may see tremendous breakthroughs in eliminating human disease — at least that is the goal for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

NEW ORLEANS — Most patients aged at least 70 years with thyroid nodules will benefit from the use of high-quality ultrasound and judicious use of fine-needle aspiration, as the likelihood of thyroid carcinoma decreases with age and the rate of other comorbidities increases, according to a speaker at the Endocrine Society Annual Meeting.

NEW ORLEANS — In this video exclusive, Kristien Boelaert, MD, PHD, of the University of Birmingham in the U.K., discusses the findings of a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial comparing the effects of levothyroxine on birth rates in women with thyroid peroxidase antibodies and normal thyroid function as well as a history of infertility or miscarriage.

NEW ORLEANS — Euthyroid women with thyroid antibody positivity prescribed levothyroxine before and during pregnancy were no more likely to experience a live birth at 34 weeks of gestation than similar women assigned to placebo treatment, according to findings presented at the Endocrine Society Annual Meeting.

NEW ORLEANS — The odds of having subclinical hypothyroidism are higher for children of Latino ancestry with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease than those without the condition, according to findings presented at the Endocrine Society Annual Meeting.

Patients with mild to moderate hyperparathyroidism who underwent parathyroidectomy experienced a decrease in total cholesterol and reduced pulse wave velocity vs. controls who delayed surgery for 3 months, suggesting a possible benefit in short-term cardiovascular risk with surgery, according to findings from a randomized controlled trial.

An early and intensive control of hyperthyroidism in Graves’ disease is associated with reduced mortality and cardiovascular risk independent of the method of treatment, according to findings from a linked-record cohort study.

Infertile women appeared more likely to develop certain malignancies than women without fertility problems, according to an analysis of a U.S. insurance claims database.

For adults with Hashimoto’s disease, total thyroidectomy can reduce symptoms of pain and fatigue that remain even after euthyroid status is achieved with standard medical therapy, according to findings published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.