Recombinant human thyrotropin versus thyroid hormone withdrawal preparation for radioiodine ablation in differentiated thyroid cancer: Experience in a South Taiwanese medical center.

This retrospective study was designed to compare the treatment response of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) prepared for radioiodine ablation (RIA) with thyroid hormone withdrawal (THW) or recombinant human thyrotropin (rhTSH) stimulation. Patients with DTC were followed-up retrospectively between 2013 and 2018 in Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taiwan. We compared the excellent response ratios between THW (49.9%) and rhTSH (50.1%) stimulation. Patients were then divided into subgroups, on the basis of age, sex, extrathyroidal extension, lymph node metastasis, and tumor-node-metastasis stage, for analysis. In all, 647 patients were followed-up after RIA. The ratios of THW or rhTSH use in the different subgroups were not statistically significant. In all the patients, the excellent response rate with THW and rhTSH was 80% and 76.5%, respectively, which was not statistically significant. The subgroup analysis, including age, sex, extrathyroidal extension, lymph node metastasis, and tumor-node-metastasis stage (low and high risk), showed similar results. Furthermore, the logistic regression analysis revealed no statistically significant differences among the subgroups. The multivariate analysis showed extrathyroidal extension, lymph node metastasis, and high I131 dose were the prognostic factors affecting the excellent response rate. In conclusion, the THW and rhTSH preparations for RIA were similar in terms of the excellent response rates and subgroup clinical outcomes.

Hypocalcemia Is a Common Risk Factor for Osteoporosis in Taiwanese Patients with Cushing's Syndrome.

Background: Osteoporosis is a cardinal manifestation of Cushing's syndrome. There is a lack of relevant research on risk factors for osteoporosis among patients with Cushing's syndrome (CS) in Taiwan. Thus, this study was designed to explore the possible risk factors of osteoporosis. Methods: We gathered patients with a diagnosis of CS between 2001 and 2017 in the Chang Gung Research Database (CGRD). We extracted data including diagnoses and biochemistry from hospital records. The diagnosis of CS was based on ICD-9-CM codes (255.0). Osteoporosis was defined by a T value equal to or less than −2.5 in BMD examination and hypocalcemia was defined as serum calcium concentrations < 8.0 mg/dL. Results: A total of 356 patients with CS who made regular visits to the outpatient department were enrolled in this study. The mean age was 68.6 years, and 74.9% of the patients were female. Of them, 207 patients (58.1%) were diagnosed with osteoporosis. Multivariable logistic regression models indicated that serum calcium level was negatively associated with osteoporosis (OR 0.70, CI 0.54−0.91, p < 0.001) after adjustment for age, sex, and other confounding risk factors. In addition, hypocalcemia was associated with heart failure (HF) (OR 2.14, CI 1.02−4.47, p < 0.05), stroke (OR 2.58, CI 1.21−5.46, p < 0.05) and osteoporosis (OR 3.04, CI 1.24−7.41, p < 0.05) in multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Our study found that lower serum calcium levels were common among patients with CS and osteoporosis. Furthermore, CS patients with HF or stroke had high proportion of hypocalcemia. Therefore, these patients must pay more attention to adequate calcium supplementation and undergo the appropriate osteoporosis drug treatment to reduce the risk of subsequent fracture and disability.