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Some endocrinologists have proposed that the high limit of normality of TSH is to be lowered to 2.5 μU/ml (instead of the traditional value of 45 μU/ml): this suggestion, which has arisen many discussions, derives from the uncertainty about subclinical hypothyroidism prevalence in the general [...]
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Only a part, ranging from 15% to 20%, of active T3 is produced by thyroid; the rest derives from T4 peripheral conversion; so, the treatments implying T3 plus T4 administration are necessarily better than T4 administration alone. In order to deeply study the problem, 50 patients undergoing [...]
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In a population of healthy people, the mild increase in TSH becomes more frequent with age increasing, but the interpretation of this increase in not clear (real hypothyroidism or simple age-related physiological variation?). In order to explain the question the NHANES III (National Health and [...]
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In general, menopause is associated with weight gain, obliging women to make great efforts to decrease their own weight. Can this struggle to weight gain be transformed into a damage for bone mineral density (BMD)? A randomized trial tried to investigate the problem, enrolling 373 pre-menopausal [...]
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The effects of surgery in patients with mild primitive and asymptomatic hyperparathyroidism were examined through some trials: in this last Italian trial, 50 patients (average age 65; 92% females) affected by asymptomatic hyperparathyroidism were randomized to surgery or observation. About half of [...]
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Together with disadvantages and risks deriving from the use of estrogens in postmenopause, revealed by the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial, further trials were performed denying the cardiovascular dangerousness of these drugs used as substitutive hormone therapy. Now, coronary calcifications [...]
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Pharmacological therapy of hyperthyroidism mainly involves two substances: methimazole and propylthiouracil (PTU). Some Japanese researchers wanted to compare these drugs, randomizing 396 patients affected by Basedow’s disease to be treated with 15 mg of methimazole once a day, 15 mg methimazole [...]
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The diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism is generally made after the accidental discovery of a mild hypercalcemia in completely asymptomatic patients. In this situation, the choice of simply keeping the patient under control seems reasonable, even if some endocrinologists think these patients [...]
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Statistics tell us that about 5% of all thyroid nodules are malignant and this percentage increases among young patients (younger than 30) or old patients (more than 60), among those with previous loco-regional irradiation, among those with a family history of thyroid cancer. In this retrospective [...]
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Since long time people discuss whether the use of androgens is able to increase women’s libido. The Endocrine Society has now released some evidence-based recommendations, whose fundamental points are:
- physicians should not give a diagnosis of androgenic deficiency in women as neither has [...]