The Interpretation of Thyroid Function Tests in Hospitalized Patients
- John E. Morley, MB, BCh;
- Michael F. Slag, MD;
- Michael K. Elson, PhD;
- Rex B. Shafer, MD
- From the Neuroendocrine Research Laboratory (Dr Morley) and the Department of Nuclear Medicine (Drs Elson and Shafer), Veterans Administration Medical Center, and the Division of Endocrinology (Drs Morley and Slag) and Departments of Medicine (Drs Morley, Slag, Elson, and Shafer) and Radiology (Dr Shafer), University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
NUMEROUS studies have demonstrated a high incidence of unsuspected hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism in hospitalized patients.1,2 In general, thyroid dysfunction is present in 2% to 5% of short-term hospitalized subjects and patients in long— term medical or psychiatric nursing facilities. Increased awareness of this high incidence, coupled with the problem that the clinical diagnosis of thyroid dysfunction in patients with other concomitant diseases, has resulted in an increase in screening for thyroid disorders. This increase in the ordering of thyroid function tests has led to the discovery that many hospitalized patients have abnormal findings on thyroid function tests that are unrelated to underlying thyroid disorders. The purpose of this review is to describe the multiple syndromes of altered thyroid function that have been reported in hospitalized patients and to develop a simple, cost-effective approach to thyroid function screening in these patients.
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to Veterans Administration Medical Center, 54th St and 48th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55417 (Dr Morley).
