Treatment with levothyroxine may increase the risk of death in some elderly patients reported a new clinical research presented at the 100th annual meeting of the Endocrine Society. The study demonstrated that in patients who are 65 years of age or above with subclinical hypothyroidism and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) <10 mIU/L, levothyroxine treatment is linked with significantly increased mortality. Further, the patients were analyzed according to age, gender, Charlson comorbidity index, TSH testing date, follow-up duration, and TSH quartile, and the use of levothyroxine was compared between the groups.
The patients with known thyroid disease and those who had received anti-thyroid medications or glucocorticoids in the year before they were tested for TSH were excluded. The study reported that treatment with levothyroxine was linked with significantly increased mortality (hazard…
