Objective To review all published evidence about thyroid disease based on Meta-analysis. Methods We thoroughly searched the MEDLINE and Cochrane Library combined with Meta-analysis and thyroid disease as key words. Results Total 22 articles were obtained but only 14 papers reached our aim. Conclusion These studies ranged from etiology of thyroid cancer, levothyroxine treatment, to Graves’ disease and have provided excellent evidences about some clinical questions. But there still are a lot of questions need us study further.
Objective To explore the efficacy and safety of levothyroxine (L-T4) combined with desiccated thyroid extract (DTE) in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) who had suboptimal response to long-term (≥6 months) thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) suppression therapy with L-T4 alone after surgery. MethodsA total of 123 eligible patients were prospectively enrolled and received TSH suppression therapy with DTE combined with L-T4. The Kaplan?Meier (KM) curve was used to analyze the TSH suppression rate and assess the efficacy of this combination therapy. The Thyroid-Related Patient-Reported Outcome-39 (THyPRO-39) questionnaire was used to assess the patient-reported symptoms before medication adjustment and at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after. ResultsAmong the 123 patients, 100 were ultimately included and completed follow-up, with a follow-up period of one year. After the first adjustment to L-T4+DTE combination therapy, the rate of TSH suppression was raised to 71% (71/100). The KM curve revealed that the TSH suppression rate gradually increased in the follow-uptime, with a cumulative rate of 82.0%. The median TSH suppression time to reach the standard was 1.4 months. Following L-T4+DTE combination therapy, the serum free Triiodothyronine (FT3) level significantly increased [(4.5±0.6) pmol/L vs. (5.5±1.1) pmol/L, P<0.001] but remained within the normal range, whereas the free thyroxine (FT4) level did not significantly change [(21.9±2.1) pmol/L vs. (21.5±3.0) pmol/L, P=0.075]. However, patients who did not achieve target levels exhibited a decrease in serum FT4 levels compared to baseline, and the magnitude of this decrease was significantly greater than that observed in the target-achieved group [–0.8 (–2.1, –0.9) pmol/L vs. –2.5 (–3.8, –0.8) pmol/L, P=0.022]. The questionnaire results indicated that the combined L-T4+DTE treatment regimen had no significant impact on quality of life scores during the follow-up period (χ2=4.006, P=0.548). Conversely, the hyperthyroidism symptom scores showed significant improvement over the treatment period (χ2=23.120, P<0.001), with the median scores demonstrating an overall downward trend. ConclusionFor postoperative DTC patients who fail to achieve TSH suppression with L-T4 monotherapy, L-T4+DTE combination therapy can significantly increase the TSH suppression attainment rate while alleviating thyrotoxicosis-related symptoms.
