Bone mineral density and bone microarchitecture after long-term suppressive levothyroxine treatment of differentiated thyroid carcinoma in young adult patients.

Bone mineral density (BMD) seems not to be decreased in young patients given long-term suppressive doses of levothyroxine (LT4), but information regarding the bone microstructure in these patients is lacking. The aim of this study was to determine whether supraphysiologic doses of LT4, initiated during childhood or adolescence for treatment of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC), have any detrimental effects on bone microarchitecture as evaluated by high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT). Seventeen patients (27.