title: Thyroid disease.
abstract: Evaluation and treatment of thyroid disease is a common feature of primary care medicine. Nevertheless, the dose of thyroid hormone used to treat hypothyroidism is frequently not titrated to normalize the TSH, engendering the risks of under- or overtreatment. Other hypothyroid patients remain symptomatic even with normalized TSH on levothyroxine alone. Some of these patients improve symptomatically when liothyronine is added to the treatment regimen. Subclinical hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism are also relatively common in primary care medical practice, and appropriately selected patients probably benefit from treatment. In the follow-up of patients treated for thyroid cancer, the use of rhTSH improves patient comfort considerably while allowing sensitive screening for persistent or recurrent cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA 98105, USA. tevans@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: Timothy C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000187:drug effects; D006321:Heart / Q000187:drug effects; D020249:Hormone Replacement Therapy; D006801:Humans; D006980:Hyperthyroidism / Q000188:drug therapy; D007037:Hypothyroidism / Q000188:drug therapy; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D013963:Thyroid Hormones / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013972:Thyrotropin / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D013963:Thyroid Hormones; D013972:Thyrotropin