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Thyroxine Treatment With Softgel Capsule Formulation: Usefulness in Hypothyroid Patients Without Malabsorption

Overview of attention for article published in Frontiers in endocrinology, March 2018
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Title
Thyroxine Treatment With Softgel Capsule Formulation: Usefulness in Hypothyroid Patients Without Malabsorption
Published in
Frontiers in endocrinology, March 2018
DOI 10.3389/fendo.2018.00118
Pubmed ID
Authors

Pierpaolo Trimboli, Camilla Virili, Marco Centanni, Luca Giovanella

Abstract

Levothyroxine sodium (LT4) is the therapy of choice for hypothyroidism. In the last decade, new LT4 formulations, such as liquid and softgel capsules, became available. Even if some evidence has been reached in the efficacy of liquid LT4 in patients with suboptimal TSH on tablet LT4, the usefulness of softgel LT4 has been rarely studied. This study aimed at evaluating the effect of switching from tablet to softgel LT4 patients without increased need for LT4. TSH was used as proxy of LT4 bioavailability and effectiveness. During the period from April to August 2017, 19 patients on tablet LT4 treatment for hypothyroidism, mostly due to autoimmune thyroiditis, were enrolled. Subjects with causes of malabsorption or increased requirement of LT4 were previously excluded. Patients finally included were asked to switch from tablet to softgel LT4 formulation at unchanged dose and ingestion fashion (30 min before breakfast). TSH was measured with chemiluminescence immunoassays. According to exclusion and inclusion criteria, 19 patients were finally selected. One of these had headache 4 days later and come back to tablet LT4, and 18 of them (16W/2M; mean age = 55 years; BMI 22.7 kg/m2) completed the study. They were treated with a median LT4 dose of 88 μg/day and showed a median TSH value of 3.33 mIU/L. The rate of cases with TSH ≤ 4.0 mIU/L was 61.1% (11/18 cases). When patients were re-evaluated after 3 months of softgel LT4, we observed that TSH reached levels under 4.0 mIU/L in 16/18 (88.9%) patients, TSH was lower in 11 cases, and in 6 out of 7 patients with pre-switch TSH values over the normal range. Overall, TSH values on softgel LT4 (median 1.90 mIU/L) was significantly lower from that observed during tablet LT4 (p = 0.0039). These data show that hypothyroid patients with no proven malabsorption may have an improved TSH following 3 months from the switch from tablet to softgel LT4 preparation at unchanged dose.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 24 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 24 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 4 17%
Student > Bachelor 3 13%
Other 3 13%
Professor 2 8%
Student > Ph. D. Student 2 8%
Other 4 17%
Unknown 6 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 8 33%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 2 8%
Nursing and Health Professions 2 8%
Chemistry 2 8%
Immunology and Microbiology 1 4%
Other 3 13%
Unknown 6 25%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 March 2018.
All research outputs
#23,269,088
of 25,932,719 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in endocrinology
#8,555
of 13,317 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#309,945
of 350,218 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in endocrinology
#130
of 198 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,932,719 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 13,317 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.1. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 350,218 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 198 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 1st percentile – i.e., 1% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.