Skeletal Fragility in Endogenous Hypercortisolism.

Skeletal fragility is a frequent complication of endogenous hypercortisolism, and fragility fractures may be the first clinical manifestation of the disease. Fractures involve more frequently the vertebrae and may occur in 30-50% of the patients exposed to glucocorticoid excess, in close relationship with severity and duration of hypercortisolism. Although improvement of bone mineral density was reported after resolution of hypercortisolism, there are patients with persistently high fracture risk after the cure of hypercortisolism, and other patients in whom the resolution of hypercortisolism may take a long time, implying a multistep therapeutic approach.

A Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial of Liquid Thyroxine Ingested at Breakfast: Results of the TICO Study.

Background: Levothyroxine (LT4) is the recommended treatment for millions of hypothyroid patients. Current guidelines recommend that LT4 tablets be taken in a fasting state, but inability to adhere to this often leads to poor therapy compliance.

Methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial was conducted in previously untreated hypothyroid patients randomly assigned to receive an oral solution of LT4 either at least 30 minutes before breakfast or directly at breakfast time.

Elastography Evaluation of Benign Thyroid Nodules in Patients Affected by Hashimoto's Thyroiditis.

The aim of the present prospective study was to evaluate the predictive value of elastography in benign thyroid nodules of patients affected by Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT). From January 2011 to January 2012, 242 nodules in patients affected by HT were submitted to fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC). All of the patients underwent sonography and elastography performed before FNAC.

Oral liquid levothyroxine treatment at breakfast: a mistake?

Objective: Taking levothyroxine (L-T₄) with coffee or with water followed by coffee intake within a few minutes results in poor TSH response in many patients. T₄ is available in tablet form worldwide, but novel formulations in soft gel capsule or liquid form are now available.

Design: We fortuitously identified a euthyroid patient who wrongly consumed liquid L-T₄ with coffee at breakfast; after changing the time of consumption to 30 min before breakfast, no change in TSH, free T₄ (fT₄), and free tri-iodothyronine (fT₃) concentrations was observed.

Real-time elastography: a useful tool for predicting malignancy in thyroid nodules with nondiagnostic cytologic findings.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of sonography and sonographic elastography in thyroid nodules with nondiagnostic cytologic findings.

Methods: The study included 101 patients (74 female, mean age ± SD, 55 ± 11 years [range, 27-70 years]; and 27 male, mean age, 62 ± 9 years [range, 42-72 years]) who had at least 1 nodule with nondiagnostic cytologic findings at two different fine-needle aspiration cytologic evaluations and with an indication for hemi or total thyroidectomy for clinical suspicion of malignancy, nodule size, or the occurrence of a coexisting nodule with cytologic findings suspicious for malignancy. All of the patients underwent sonography and elastography 2 months after the second fine-needle aspiration and before surgery.

Thyreotropin levels in diabetic patients on metformin treatment.

Objective: A retrospective study to evaluate the changes in TSH concentrations in diabetic patients treated or not treated with metformin and/or L-thyroxine (L-T(4)).

Methods: Three hundred and ninety three euthyroid diabetic patients were divided into three groups on the basis of metformin and/or L-T(4) treatment: Group (M-/L-), 119 subjects never treated with metformin and L-T(4); Group (M+/L-), 203 subjects who started metformin treatment at recruitment; and Group (M+/L+), 71 patients on L-T(4) who started metformin recruitment.

Results: The effect of metformin on serum TSH concentrations was analyzed in relation to the basal value of TSH (below 2.

Morbid obesity in women is associated to a lower prevalence of thyroid nodules.

Background: Few studies have recently showed functional and morphological changes of the thyroid gland in relation to obesity. To our knowledge, no data are available about the prevalence of thyroid nodules in female obese patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of thyroid nodules in morbidly obese women.