Levothyroxine Dose Adjustment to Optimise Therapy Throughout a Patient's Lifetime.

ABSTRACT: Levothyroxine is the standard therapy for patients with hypothyroidism, a condition that affects up to 5% of people worldwide. While levothyroxine therapy has substantially improved the lives of millions of hypothyroid patients since its introduction in 1949, the complexity of maintaining biochemical and clinical euthyroidism in patients undergoing treatment with levothyroxine cannot be underestimated. Initial dosing of levothyroxine can vary greatly and may be based on the amount of residual thyroid function retained by the patient, the body weight or lean body mass of the patient, and thyroid-stimulating hormone levels. As levothyroxine is usually administered over a patient's lifetime, physiological changes throughout life will affect the dose of levothyroxine required to maintain euthy

SUBMITTER: Duntas LH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6822824 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature