Disorders of Thyroid Function Presentations at American Thyroid Association: 89th Annual Meeting

The American Thyroid Association will hold its 89^th Annual Meeting on October 30-November 3, 2019, at the Sheraton Grand Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. In addition to hearing major speeches and awards, attendees can view the following posters and oral presentations on disorders of thyroid dysfunction.

1. Philip G. Clerc, of the Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas will present a poster on Thursday, October 31, 2019, “Prevalence of Laboratory Thyroid Dysfunction Prior to First Dispense of Levothyroxine,” (Poster 60) to address prescribing practices for levothyroxine. Providers often prescribe this medication for patients who present with nonspecific symptoms, even though they show no laboratory confirmation of thyroid dysfunction. Dr. Clerc and his colleagues conducted a retrospective data analysis for 9,400 patients in a military health system who had obtained their first dispense of levothyroxine in 2018 and had had thyroid function tests during the preceding 6 months. Of these patients, only 15% had a thyroid-stimulating hormone level higher than 10 mU/L. This may be the first estimate of prescribing practices for levothyroxine compared with clinical practice guideline recommendations.
2. Freddy Jean Karlo Toloza Bonilla, of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas and Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota will present a poster on Thursday, October 31, 2019, “Association of Thyroid Function with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.” (Poster 94) Dr. Bonilla and his colleagues searched several databases for studies reporting mean values and standard deviation of thyroid hormone levels in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), compared with controls. Studies published from the databases’ inception through July 20, 2018, were included. The systematic review and meta-analysis included ten observational studies with a total of 675 participants. The meta-analysis revealed significant differences in mean thyroid hormone levels between patients with PTSD and control patients. The clinical implications of this finding are unknown.
3. In Poster 86 on Thursday, October 31, 2019, Dr. Daniella Araujo Muniz, of the Faculdade de Medicina de Marilia, São Paulo, Brazil, will present the results of a cross-sectional analysis assessing potential associations between thyroid and kidney function. The analysis included 1,110 participants aged 30 years and older who were free of thyroid disease and medications in a prospective, population-based study. Kidney function was determined based on estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and chronic kidney disease was defined as eGFR lower than 60 mL/min/1.73 m². After adjustment for several risk factors associated with chronic kidney disease, logistic regression models identified subclinical hypothyroidism and low-normal thyroid function as independent risk factors for chronic kidney disease in this population. The poster is titled, “Subclinical Hypothyroidism and Low-Normal Thyroid Function Are Associated with Increased Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease: A Population-Based Study.”
4. Carol Chiung-Hui Peng, of the University of Maryland Medical Center, Midtown Campus, Baltimore, Maryland will present Poster 56 on Thursday, October 31, 2019, “Association of Hypothyroidism and Mortality in the Elderly Population: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.” The systematic review and meta-analysis included 27 cohort studies evaluating associations between hypothyroidism and mortality among a total of 1,122,891 older adults total. The meta-analysis found a significantly higher risk for all-cause mortality among older adults with hypothyroidism than among those with euthyroidism. No links between hypothyroidism and cardiovascular mortality were identified.
5. In an oral presentation on Thursday, October 31, 2019, Dr. Ying Yang, of the National Research Institute for Health and Family Planning, National Human Genetic Resources Center, Beijing, China will present an update to her study, “Preconception Thyroid Stimulating Hormone Level and Risk of Preterm Birth in Over 4.3 Million Rural Chinese Women Aged 20-49 Years: A Population-based Cohort.” (Oral 15) Dr. Yang and his colleagues conducted this historical cohort study among 4,324,810 reproductive-aged women who had participated in the National Free Pre-pregnancy Checkups Project (NFPC) between 2013 and 2016. The NFPC system collected data on preconception TSH levels, family history, and history of pregnancy, among other variables, and information on pregnancy outcomes were documented during the follow-up period before December 2017. Preterm births were defined as live births occurring at 28 to 37 weeks. The study documented 287,288 preterm birth events, for a prevalence of 6.64%. The study identified a U-shaped relationship between preconception TSH levels and risk for preterm birth, with both decreasing and increasing preconception TSH levels increasing the risk for preterm birth.

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The American Thyroid Association^® (ATA) is dedicated to transforming thyroid care through clinical excellence, education, scientific discovery and advocacy in a collaborative community. ATA^® is an international professional medical society with over 1,700 members from 70 countries around the world. Celebrating its 96^th anniversary, the ATA^® delivers its mission — transforming thyroid care through clinical excellence, education, scientific discovery and advocacy in a collaborative community — through several key endeavors:

• The publication of the highly regarded professional journals Thyroid^®, Clinical Thyroidology^®, and VideoEndocrinology
• Annual scientific meetings
• Biennial clinical and research symposia
• Research grant programs for young investigators
• Support of online professional, public, and patient educational programs
• Development of guidelines for clinical management of thyroid disease and thyroid cancer

The ATA^® promotes thyroid awareness and information through its online Clinical Thyroidology^® for the Public (distributed free of charge to over 12,000 patients and public subscribers) and extensive, authoritative explanations of thyroid disease and thyroid cancer in both English and Spanish. The ATA^® website www.thyroid.org serves as a bonafide clinical resource for patients and the public who look for reliable information on the Internet.