Grip strength as a biomarker of adverse health outcomes

Weak grip strength is a key component of sarcopenia and frailty and is associated with subsequent poor health, disability and mortality. The measurement could be useful as a biomarker of overall strength, immobilization and quality of life with superiority over chronological age.Although stand-alone measures of handgrip strength provide robust health information, the clinical meaningfulness to determine prevention and treatment options for weakness remains limited because the etiology of muscle weakness remains unclear. Therefore, disentangling how handgrip strength is associated with health conditions that are metabolically or neurologically driven may improve our understanding of the factors linked to handgrip strength.The purpose of this topical review is to highlight and summarize evidence examining the associations of handgrip strength with certain health outcomes that are metabolically and neurologically driven. From this perusal of the literature, we posit that stand-alone handgrip strength could be considered as an umbrella assessment of the body systems that contribute to strength capacity. Recommendations for future strength capacity-related research are also provided.Physical well-being and in particular muscle strength, estimated by grip strength, may increase health-related quality of life and are therefore an important source for well-being during old age

The role of thyroid hormones on the skeletal muscle and the development of sarcopenia

Thyroid hormone signaling regulates crucial biological functions, including energy expenditure,thermogenesis, development, and growth. The skeletal muscle is a major target of thyroid hormone signaling. Thyroid hormones (thyroxine, or T4, and triiodothyronine, or T3) participate in contractile function, metabolic processes, myogenesis, and regeneration of skeletal muscle.The aim of this review is to present the data in the literature describing the actions of thyroid hormones on skeletal muscle, both in normal condition and in thyroid dysfunction.Thyroid hormone level oscillations have been associated with the worsening of many myopathies such as myasthenia gravis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and rhabdomyolysis. During aging skeletal muscle shows a decrease in mass and quality, known as sarcopenia. There is increasing evidence that thyroid hormones could have a role in the sarcopenic process.Thyroid hormones have profound metabolic effects, and chronic hyperthyroidism is characterized by increased energy expenditure with increased oxidation of protein, glucose, and lipids. Loss of muscle mass and subsequent sarcopenia are prominent clinical features of hyperthyroidism.Sarcopenia is a factor associated with impaired quality of life, increased risk of immobilization and disability, and early mortality. For this reason, its targeted search among risk categories, such as patients with thyroid dysfunction, is important

THYROID METASTASIS OF A SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA OF THE TONGUE - A RARE CASE REPORT

Introduction: We present a patient with carcinoma of the tongue with а lymph node and thyroid metastasеs. The squamous cell cancer of the tongue’s 5-year survival rate has not been improved in the last three decades. Most common sites of metastases are the locoregional lymph nodes, followed by distant pulmonary, liver, bone and skin metastasеs. Only ten cases of metastases to the thyroid gland are reported in the literature. Case report: A 79-year old man presented to the University Hospital in Varna, Bulgaria. Two months before admission, he noticed swelling of the tongue and progressive weight loss. The inspection of the oral cavity revealed a lesion on the left margin of the tongue. A biopsy was performed with a histological result of differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. A computed tomography scan of the head and neck region discovered a lesion in the right thyroid lobe. 18-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose-positron emission tomography imaging showed a metabolically active tumor of the tongue with hypermetabolic metastatic cervical lymph nodes and a zone with abnormally elevated fixation of 18F-FDG in the central part of the soft palate. The described thyroid nodule did not have an increased tracer uptake. It was cytologically assessed after fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) as a metastasis from squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. Conclusions: Distant metastases from tongue cancer to the thyroid gland are extremely rare and mostly occur in the advanced stages of malignancy.</jats:p