The Nonthyroidal Illness Syndrome: Prognostic Value and Circulating Cytokines after Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation / 대한내분비학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Alteration of thyroid hormone parameters are frequently observed in sick patients and commonly known as nonthyroidal illness syndrome(NTIS) or euthyroid sick syndrome(ESS). NTIS is seen in starvation, surgery, severe illness, and also bone marrow transplantation(BMT). The degree of reduction in thyroid hormone parameters correlated with the severity of NTIS and might predict the prognosis of underlying illness. Recently, particular attention is focused on the role of cytokines in developing the NTIS. This prospective study was designed to assess the relationship of serum thyroid hormone parameters and serum cytokine levels before and in the short-term follow-up after allogeneic BMT in order to predict patients outcome. METHODS: Included 80 patients that were mainly leukemia and severe aplastic anemia. Serum thyroid hormone parameters and serum cytokine levels were measured before and 7, 14, 21, 28 days and 3, and 6 months after BMT. RESULTS: Near-all patients experienced significant decrease of thyroid hormone levels and also significant increase of cytokine levels after BMT. After post-BMT 3 weeks, the serum cytokine levels were negatively correlated with the serum T3 and T4 levels, but not with the serum TSH levels. The patients treated with high-dose steroid or total-body irradiation tended to show lower levels of TSH and more delayed recovery compared to non-treated patients. The patients died after BMT represented generally lower levels of all thyroid hormone parameters than survival patients during entire follow-up period. CONCLUSION: Development of NTIS is associated with higher probability of fatal outcome after BMT and has prognostic relationship in this group of patients. Increased levels of cytokines, especially IL-6 and TNF-alpha, are often found in post-BMT NTIS patients and correlated with the changes in the levels of thyroid hormone parameters.