A study on endocrine changes in patients in intensive care unit.

Pattern of endocrine changes in moderate to severely ill patients in a medical intensive care unit, correlation with the severity of illness and whether these changes can predict outcome of the critically ill patients were evaluated and studied in 80 patients admitted with acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE) II score >10 and without any pre-existing endocrinopathies or on drugs likely to affect the endocrine axis. Adrenal insufficiency was present in 45%, and mortality was higher in those with lower (<15 microg/dl) and higher (>30 microg/dl) serum cortisol. Sick euthyroid syndrome was detected in 80%, and those with low mean T3 (<0.6 ng/ml), free T4 (<0.89 ng/dl) and total T4 (<4 microg/dl) and had increased mortality. Hypotestosteronaemia was found in 92% of men and was significantly associated with severity of illness in men. Though prolactin is the first hormone to be elevated, there was no correlation between prolactin and severity of illness or mortality.

Fine needle aspiration cytology of thyroid gland and histopathological correlation--revisited.

Fine needle aspiration of the thyroid gland, followed by cytological studies and their correlation with histopathological diagnosis have been undertaken to assess the effectiveness of fine needle aspiration cytology in diagnosing disorders of this gland. The cases in which discrepancies had arisen between these two methods of diagnosis have also been reviewed. Out of the total 100 patients studied, 28 were cases of simple colloid goitre, 17 of adenomatoid goitre, 10 of autoimmune thyroiditis ranging from lymphocytic thyroiditis to Hashimoto's thyroiditis, 28 of follicular neoplasia, 10 of papillary carcinoma, one of medullary carcinoma, 2 of anaplastic carcinoma and 4 of cystic lesions of the thyroid gland. Although, fine needle aspiration cytology of the thyroid gland was diagnostic in 75% of cases, it did not correlate with the histopathological diagnosis in the remaining 25% of cases. Possible reasons behind these discrepancies have been discussed.