Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28694722›Full record

ReviewBiochemia medica2017

Thyroid testing in acutely ill patients may be an expensive distraction.

Lakdasa D Premawardhana

Open access · diamondAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Biochemia medica, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.6field-weighted citation impact, top 16% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Observational
  7. Article
  8. The Clinical Approach on Receipt of an Unexpected Laboratory Test Result.International journal of general medicine · 2020
    Article
  9. Article
  10. An audit of thyroid function testing in acutely ill patients at a South African academic hospital.The Southern African journal of critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Society · 2020
    Article
  11. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Lakdasa D PremawardhanaSection of Endocrinology, YYF Hospital, Caerphilly, UK.
University Hospital of Wales · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In health, an efficient negative feedback mechanism maintains serum thyroid hormone concentrations within an exquisitely controlled narrow range. Therefore any change that occurs to thyroid hormones in intrinsic thyroid disease is concordant and easy to interpret. Optimal functioning of the many tissues they influence is thereby facilitated.
The situation in acute illnesses is different. Mechanisms that operate in these circumstances influence the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis and its components producing thyroid test results, which are discordant, do not fit recognizable patterns and are difficult to interpret. The yield of abnormalities is also low (about 7%). As many studies indicate, thyroid tests are expensive and consume large amounts of the hospital budget and resources of hospital laboratories. Other studies have shown that when abnormalities are detected, clinicians do not intervene or follow up these subjects. Therefore the clinical utility of thyroid testing in acutely ill patients is debatable. Interventions to change requestor behaviour with regard to thyroid testing in acutely ill subjects and the success of some audit and educational interventions are worthy of note.
Thyroid testing in acutely ill patients is often an expensive distraction and is of limited clinical value. Targeted thyroid testing should be offered in this group only to those with: (a) symptoms or signs of thyroid disease

Indexed as

Acute DiseaseHumansHypothalamo-Hypophyseal SystemPituitary-Adrenal SystemPractice Guidelines as TopicThyroid DiseasesThyroid Function TestsThyroid GlandThyroid HormonesThyroid Hormonesacute illnessguidelinesthyroid tests

Identifiers

PMID28694722
PMCPMC5493170
OpenAlexW2626744367

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.