Maturation in serum thyroid function parameters over childhood and puberty:results of a longitudinal study

Context: Serum thyroid hormone levels differ between children and adults, but have not been studied longitudinally through childhood. Objective: To assess changes in thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroid hormone levels over childhood and their interrelationships. Design: Cohort study. Setting: The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a population-based birth cohort. Participants: A total of 4442 children who had thyroid function measured at age 7, and 1263 children who had thyroid function measured at age 15. Eight hundred eighty-four children had measurements at both ages. Main Outcome Measures: Reference ranges for TSH, free tri-iodothyronine (FT3), free thyroxine (FT4), their longitudinal stability, and interrelationships. Results: Children at age 7 years had a higher FT3 [6.17 pmol/L, standard deviation (SD) 0.62] than children at age 15 (5.83 pmol/L, SD 0.74); P , 0.0001 with 23.2% of children at age 7 having FT3 above the adult reference range. Higher FT3 levels at age 7 in boys (P = 0.0001) and girls (P = 0.04) were associated with attainment of a more advanced pubertal stage at age 13. TSH was positively associated with FT3 at age 7 and age 15 even after adjusting for confounders. In contrast, TSH was negatively associated with FT

Cybersecurity Issues in Implanted Medical Devices

Implantable Medical Devices (IMDs) is a promising new technology in the medical field to improve the treatment of patients. IMDs are electronic devices implanted in the human body to monitor or treat various sorts of diseases in different organs or to enhance the poor functions of different body parts. This article introduces problems in designing Implantable Medical Devices (IMDs), from a cybersecurity perspective. Older generations of IMDs did not consider device security as a prominent design goal. As a result, existing IMDs in the market suffer from vulnerabilities, that if exploited can have dramatic consequences. In this article, we emphasize the importance of securing IMDs by reviewing different possible attacks on many IMDs. We further presents approaches to secure IMDs as well as future research directions in this field, from lightweight cryptography to distance bounded communication through wirelessly rechargeable batteries