Hypothyroidism

CHICAGO — All-cause mortality risk is greater for adults aged at least 60 years with overt hypothyroidism compared with adults with euthyroidism, but the same is not true for cardiovascular mortality risk, according to findings presented at the annual meeting of the American Thyroid Association.

Older adults with subclinical hypothyroidism treated with levothyroxine did not experience an improvement in symptoms or quality of life measures compared with similar adults assigned placebo, , according to findings published in JAMA.

CHICAGO— In this video exclusive, Naifa Lamki Busaidy, MD, FACP, FACE, associate professor in the department of endocrine neoplasia and hormonal disorders at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, discusses recent peer-reviewed research that has had an impact on medical thyroidology — from hypothyroidism to thyroid cancer.

Subclinical hypothyroidism is a common diagnosis, present in approximately 3% to 4% of reproductive-age women. Although a mild form of hypothyroidism — defined as elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone with normal free thyroxine levels — the condition has been associated with infertility, increased risk for adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcomes, and possibly with increased risk for neurocognitive deficits in offspring.

Among the top stories in endocrinology last week were positive results from two that trials evaluated a congenital obesity drug and a survey that found few clinicians are following the American Thyroid Association guidelines for subclinical hypothyroidism in pregnancy.

The overall standardized incidence rate of overt thyrotoxicosis in Denmark decreased by 50% after more than a decade of mandatory iodine fortification in the country without an increase in the overall incidence of sustained, overt hypothyroidism, according to findings published in Clinical Endocrinology.

Pregnant women with mild thyroid dysfunction, such as subclinical hypothyroidism, isolated hypothyroxinemia or thyroid peroxidase antibody positivity, are more likely to deliver preterm when compared with euthyroid women, according to a meta-analysis of 19 cohort studies published in JAMA.

Only 5% of clinicians reported adhering to a recommended thyroid-stimulating hormone cutoff proposed by the American Thyroid Association for diagnosing subclinical hypothyroidism in pregnancy, and a minority said they followed recommended indications for measuring thyroid peroxidase antibody status, according to survey findings published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Obesity was shown to be more likely to develop in a cohort of adults with hyperthyroidism who received treatment for the condition vs. a background population, with radioiodine therapy applications playing a large role in this trend, according to findings published in Thyroid.