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  • Aging/ Geriatrics  • Endocrine Diseases  • Thyroid/ Parathyroid Diseases  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: The article by Dr Gussekloo and colleagues¹ found that elderly patients with elevated concentrations of thyrotropin have lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality than do euthyroid individuals. However, not all of the patients initially classified as having subclinical hypothyroidism remained in this functional state throughout the follow-up period.

We have studied the natural history of subclinical hypothyroidism in patients older than 55 years who did not receive therapeutic intervention.² We found that 40 of 107 patients (37%) normalized their thyrotropin concentrations during an observation period of 6 to 72 months. Gussekloo et al reported that 11 of 21 patients (52%) with subclinical hypothyroidism at age 85 years had normal thyrotropin values after 3 years.

Increased levels of thyrotropin at baseline were associated with decreased mortality. However, we wonder how many of the initial 30 patients with subclinical hypothyroidism remained truly hypothyroid throughout the study period, and if there . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Juan J. Díez, MD
mibarsd@infomed.es
Department of Endocrinology
Hospital Ramón y Cajal
Madrid, Spain

Pedro Iglesias, MD
Department of Endocrinology
Hospital General de Segovia
Segovia, Spain

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

Thyroid Status and Survival in Old Age
Ronald R. Scobbo
JAMA. 2005;293(12):1447.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Thyroid Status and Survival in Old Age—Reply
Jacobijn Gussekloo, Anton J. M. de Craen, and Rudi G. J. Westendorp
JAMA. 2005;293(12):1447-1448.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Thyroid Status, Disability and Cognitive Function, and Survival in Old Age
Jacobijn Gussekloo, Eric van Exel, Anton J. M. de Craen, Arend E. Meinders, Marijke Frölich, and Rudi G. J. Westendorp
JAMA. 2004;292(21):2591-2599.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT