Observational study of diagnosis and management in adult primary hypothyroidism in southwest of Sweden.

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to explore the management of newly diagnosed hypothyroidism in adults regarding laboratory diagnostics and treatment in Region Halland (RH). In addition, to investigate whether current recommendations were followed regarding diagnostics. DESIGN: Retrospective observational study. SETTING: A population-based study utilizing healthcare registry data from all public primary health care (PHC) clinics in RH during 2014-2019. SUBJECTS: Newly diagnosed patients with hypothyroidism according to ICD-10, aged ≥18 years when diagnosed and living and receiving health care in RH. There were 2494 patients included in the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Registrations of thyroid laboratory values, diagnostic codes, and drug treatment was collected. Demographic data were also recorded. Laboratory values were checked also after 12-24 months after initial diagnosis. The main outcome was the proportion with elevated TSH and TPO and how the TSH value had changed at the follow-up. RESULTS: There were 1431 (61%) patients who had elevated TSH at the onset of the disease and TPO was tested in 1133 (46%) of the patients. Elevated TPO was found in 566 (23%) of the patients. After one year, there were 1908 (76%) patients who obtained a prescription for levothyroxine. In 1127 (45%) patients, TSH had normalized within one year. CONCLUSION: There were 39% of the patients diagnosed with hypothyroidism despite normal or subclinical TSH. There was an underuse of TPO in diagnosis and this advocated that the criteria for diagnostics according to current guidelines be followed to avoid unnecessary treatment.

One third were diagnosed with hypothyroidism despite normal thyroid blood tests at onset.Thyroid peroxidase antibodies were used in less than half of the patients diagnosed for hypothyroidism at onset.Less than half of the patients had improved TSH level despite high medication ratio after one year.

HMG-CoA reductase expression in primary colorectal cancer correlates with favourable clinicopathological characteristics and an improved clinical outcome.

BACKGROUND: An association between tumor-specific HMG-CoA reductase (HMGCR) expression and good prognosis has previously been demonstrated in breast and ovarian cancer. In this study, the expression, clinicopathological correlates and prognostic value of HMGCR expression in colorectal cancer was examined. FINDINGS: Immunohistochemical expression of HMGCR was assessed in tissue microarrays with primary tumours from 557 incident cases of colorectal cancer in the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study. Pearson's Chi Square test was applied to explore the associations between HMGCR expression and clinicopathological factors and other investigative biomarkers. Kaplan Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards modeling were used to assess the relationship between HMGCR expression and cancer-specific survival (CSS) according to negative vs positive HMGCR expression. A total number of 535 (96.0%) tumours were suitable for analysis, of which 61 (11.4%) were HMGCR negative. Positive cytoplasmic HMGCR expression was associated with distant metastasis-free disease at diagnosis (p = 0.002), lack of vascular invasion (p = 0.043), microsatellite-instability (p = 0.033), expression of cyclin D1 (p = <0.001) and p21 (p = <0.001). Positive HMGCR expression was significantly associated with a prolonged CSS in unadjusted Cox regression analysis in the entire cohort (HR = 1.79; 95% CI 1.20-2.66) and in Stage III-IV disease (HR = 1.71; 95% CI 1.09-2.68), but not after adjustment for established clinicopathological parameters. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this prospective cohort study demonstrate that HMGCR is differentially expressed in colorectal cancer and that positive expression is associated with favourable tumour characteristics and a prolonged survival in unadjusted analysis. The utility of HMGCR as a predictor of response to neoadjuvant or adjuvant statin treatment in colorectal cancer merits further study. VIRTUAL SLIDES: The virtual slides for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/2115647072103464.