Expert roundtable discusses impact of thyroid autoimmune testing on women's health
A group of expert panelists gathered to discuss "Thyroid Immune Testing—Guidelines, Testing Platforms, and Clinical Impact on Women's Health." The informative and enlightening results of the Roundtable discussion are presented in an article published with Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Click here to read the expert panel discussion.
Helena Rodbard, MD, a practicing endocrinologist, Past-President of the American College of Endocrinology, and Past President of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists served as moderator of the Roundtable. Members of the distinguished panel were: Tim Korevaar, MD, Ph.D., Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Boston MA); Mark Lupo, MD, Thyroid and Endocrine Center of Florida (Sarasota) and Florida State University College of Medicine (Tallahassee); Trevor Angell, MD, and Caroline Nguyen, MD, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California (Los Angeles).
The main goal of the Expert Panel Discussion was to gather information to allow clinicians to better identify the early signs and symptoms of autoimmune thyroid disease and to understand the role that thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) receptor antibodies, such as thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulins (TSI) and thyroid-blocking immunoglobulins (TBI), play in the disease states of Graves' disease and autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD or Hashimoto's thyroiditis), respectively.
Dr. Rodbard comments that understanding the early signs and symptoms of hypo- and hyperthyroidism are so important for practitioners treating women, because the prevalence of these diseases is so much higher in women. Often, the early symptoms may be overlapping.
"The American Thyroid Association (ATA) has recently recommended thyroid antibody testing. Let's discuss what happens when a patient presents with signs and symptoms suggestive of either hypo-or hyperthyroidism," Dr. Rodbard challenged the panel.
She also opened discussion on topics such as treating women who are pregnant and have Graves' disease, the role of thyroid dysfunction and fertility, when to encourage physicians to look for clustering of other autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis, and how thyroid function test measurement is affected by women who use biotin.
