Clinical Study Screening of Undiagnosed Hypothyroidism in Elderly Persons with Diabetes according to Age-Specific Reference Intervals for Serum Thyroid Stimulating Hormone and the Impact of Antidiabetes Drugs

Background. Studies have suggested that hypothyroidism is more frequent in the elderly with diabetes mellitus. However, an adaptation of TSH levels to age should be considered in this assessment. Some antidiabetes drugs reportedly interfere with TSH levels. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of undiagnosed hypothyroidism in patients with diabetes and the influence of antidiabetes drugs. Material and Methods. 1160 subjects, 60 years and older (751 with diabetes), were studied; results were compared according to diabetes treatment and with persons without diabetes. TSH, FT4, antithyroperoxidase, fasting glucose, and HbA1c were measured. Results and Discussion. 6.4% of patients with diabetes had hypothyroidism, a higher prevalence compared with persons without diabetes (5.1%), but lower than observed in many studies. The use of age-specific TSH reference interval (RI) could explain this difference. Patients taking metformin (MTF) had TSH (showed in medians) slightly lower (2.8 mU/L) than those not on MTF (3.3 mU/L), < 0.05. MTF doses influenced TSH levels. Conclusions. The use of specific TSH RI could avoid the misdiagnosis of hypothyroidism in elderly with diabetes. Patients in use of MTF as single drug had lower TSH than those using other medications and persons without diabetes

Screening of Undiagnosed Hypothyroidism in Elderly Persons with Diabetes according to Age-Specific Reference Intervals for Serum Thyroid Stimulating Hormone and the Impact of Antidiabetes Drugs

Background. Studies have suggested that hypothyroidism is more frequent in the elderly with diabetes mellitus. However, an adaptation of TSH levels to age should be considered in this assessment. Some antidiabetes drugs reportedly interfere with TSH levels. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of undiagnosed hypothyroidism in patients with diabetes and the influence of antidiabetes drugs. Material and Methods. 1160 subjects, 60 years and older (751 with diabetes), were studied; results were compared according to diabetes treatment and with persons without diabetes. TSH, FT4, antithyroperoxidase, fasting glucose, and HbA1c were measured. Results and Discussion. 6.4% of patients with diabetes had hypothyroidism, a higher prevalence compared with persons without diabetes (5.1%), but lower than observed in many studies. The use of age-specific TSH reference interval (RI) could explain this difference. Patients taking metformin (MTF) had TSH (showed in medians) slightly lower (2.8 mU/L) than those not on MTF (3.3 mU/L), p<0.05. MTF doses influenced TSH levels. Conclusions. The use of specific TSH RI could avoid the misdiagnosis of hypothyroidism in elderly with diabetes. Patients in use of MTF as single drug had lower TSH than those using other medications and persons without diabetes

Diagnóstico da Síndrome de Turner: a experiência do Instituto Estadual de Diabetes e Endocrinologia - Rio de Janeiro, de 1970 a 2008

OBJETIVOS: descrever a experiência no diagnóstico da Síndrome de Turner (ST), focalizando a distribuição dos cromossomos, a idade, os sinais e sintomas característicos, conforme as fases da vida (lactância, infância, adolescência e adulta). MÉTODOS: estudo descritivo com 178 pacientes, atendidos de 1970 até 2008. Para análise estatística das diferenças percentuais usou-se o Epi-Info-2000 e para as diferenças entre as médias de idades o teste t de Student e o ANOVA. RESULTADOS: os cariótipos encontrados foram: 79 com 45,X (35,4%), 36 com isocromossomo Xq (20,2%) e 63 com outros mosaicos (35,4%). A média de idade do diagnóstico foi de 12,6 anos, sendo menor naquelas com 45,X. Tiveram o diagnóstico feito na lactância 11,3% das pacientes, 25,3% na infância, 51,1% na adolescência e 12,4% na fase adulta. Daquelas diagnosticadas antes dos cinco anos de idade, 70,6% apresentaram 45,X. Os sinais que levaram à suspeita diagnóstica na lactância foram o pescoço alado e o linfedema congênito de pés/mãos associados às dismorfias típicas; na infância e adolescência foi a baixa estatura. Cubitus valgus foi encontrado em 72,5% das pacientes e orelhas anômalas em 65% das pacientes diagnosticadas com menos de um ano de idade. CONCLUSÃO: o diagnóstico da ST é desnecessariamente atrasado, levando-se em consideração que algumas características típicas podem já estar presentes desde o nascimento

International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortiu (INICC) report, data summary of 43 countries for 2007-2012. Device-associated module

We report the results of an International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from January 2007-December 2012 in 503 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During the 6-year study using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) U.S. National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) definitions for device-associated health care–associated infection (DA-HAI), we collected prospective data from 605,310 patients hospitalized in the INICC's ICUs for an aggregate of 3,338,396 days. Although device utilization in the INICC's ICUs was similar to that reported from ICUs in the U.S. in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals: the pooled rate of central line–associated bloodstream infection in the INICC's ICUs, 4.9 per 1,000 central line days, is nearly 5-fold higher than the 0.9 per 1,000 central line days reported from comparable U.S. ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also higher (16.8 vs 1.1 per 1,000 ventilator days) as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (5.5 vs 1.3 per 1,000 catheter days). Frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas isolates to amikacin (42.8% vs 10%) and imipenem (42.4% vs 26.1%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (71.2% vs 28.8%) and imipenem (19.6% vs 12.8%) were also higher in the INICC's ICUs compared with the ICUs of the CDC's NHSN