07 Nov Thyroid Disease: Mortality in Elderly Hospitalized Patients
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Pedro Iglesias, MD
Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition
Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid Spain
MedicalResearch.com What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Iglesias: The main findings of our study are that alterations in TFT results are related to mortality in aged patients hospitalized for acute illness not only during hospitalization but also long term after discharge. Low FT3, low FT4, and low TSH serum concentrations are associated with decrease survival time, although only low FT3 behaves as a significant predictor of all-cause and CV mortality.
MedicalResearch.com Were any of the findings unexpected?
Dr. Iglesias: The most unexpected finding of our study was that low serum free T3 level behaves as a prognostic marker of mortality not only in the short term but also in the long term.
MedicalResearch.com What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Dr. Iglesias: We have a reliable marker of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the short and long term in elderly hospitalized patients for acute disease, and this marker is T3.
MedicalResearch.com What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Dr. Iglesias: It would be interesting to know the behaviour of serum T3 levels according to different clinical variables such as used treatments, clinical complications over time, and new therapies among others.
Citation:
J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Oct 30. [Epub ahead of print]
Last Updated on April 16, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD