This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Thyroid/ Parathyroid Diseases  • Alert me on articles by topic

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 85 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: In their Scientific Review and Clinical Applications article about subclinical thyroid disease, Dr Col and colleagues¹ performed thyroid screening for 3 asymptomatic patients (patients 1, 3, and 4) who did not seem to have any indication for these tests. As far as I know, there have been no authoritative calls for screening for asymptomatic thyroid disease.²

The negative consequences (eg, iatrogenic disease, clinical cascade, labelling) of performing laboratory tests in patients with a low prior probability of disease often outweigh the benefits.³

A. Mark Clarfield, MD, FRCPC
Department of Geriatrics
Soroka Hospital
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Beer-sheva, Israel

1. Col NF, Surks MI, Daniels GH. Subclinical thyroid disease: clinical applications. JAMA. 2004;291:239-243. FREE FULL TEXT 2. US Preventive Services Task Force. Recommendation Statement: Screening for Thyroid Disease. Available at: http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/3rduspstf/thyroid/thyrrs.htm. Accessibility verified March 12, 2004. 3. Sackett DL, Haynes RB, Guyatt GH, Tugwell P. Clinical Epidemiology: A Basic Science for Clinical Medicine. 2nd ed. Boston, Mass: Little Brown & Co; 1992:153-170.

Letters Section Editor: Stephen J. Lurie, MD, PhD, Senior Editor.

JAMA. 2004;291:1562.

RELATED ARTICLES

Screening and Treatment for Subclinical Thyroid Disease
Bernadette Biondi, Gaetano Lombardi, and Emiliano A. Palmieri
JAMA. 2004;291(13):1562.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Screening and Treatment for Subclinical Thyroid Disease—Reply
Martin I. Surks, Nananda F. Col, Neil J. Weissman, and Gilbert H. Daniels
JAMA. 2004;291(13):1562-1563.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Subclinical Thyroid Disease: Scientific Review and Guidelines for Diagnosis and Management
Martin I. Surks, Eduardo Ortiz, Gilbert H. Daniels, Clark T. Sawin, Nananda F. Col, Rhoda H. Cobin, Jayne A. Franklyn, Jerome M. Hershman, Kenneth D. Burman, Margo A. Denke, Colum Gorman, Richard S. Cooper, and Neil J. Weissman
JAMA. 2004;291(2):228-238.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT