Hypothesis: persistently normal tsh levels may be used to recognize patients with transient forms of hypothyroidism and to suggest tratment withdrawal.

Publication date: Available online 15 May 2018
Source:Medical Hypotheses
Author(s): H. Tandeter, M. Fraenkel
There are no text-book recommendations on when or if treatment should or could be stopped in patients with a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, and these patients usually receive lifelong thyroxine therapy (despite the fact that some of them may have forms of transient hypothyroidism that will later recover function). Since TSH fluctuations during thyroxine treatment are common and a lack of this fluctuation might be used to identify patients who no longer need thyroxine treatment, we hypothesize that by offering patients with persistently controlled TSH levels a withdrawal trial of thyroxine treatment we may identify those who no longer need life-long treatment.



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