Thyroid Dysfunction in the Elderly

Jin Hwa Kim

doi:10.11106/jkta.2012.5.2.94

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Kim: Thyroid Dysfunction in the Elderly

Review Article

Journal of Korean Thyroid Association

Journal of Korean Thyroid Association 2012; 5(2): 94-98.

Published online: 28 November 2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.11106/jkta.2012.5.2.94

Thyroid Dysfunction in the Elderly

Jin Hwa Kim

Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Chosun University Hospital, Gwangju, Korea.

Correspondence: Jin Hwa Kim, MD, PhD, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Chosun University Hospital, 588 Seoseok-dong, Dong-gu, Gwangju 501-717, Korea. Tel: 82-62-220-3011, Fax: 82-62-223-3316, endocrine@chosun.ac.kr

Received 19 March 2012 Revised 18 July 2012 Accepted 21 August 2012

(open-access):

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The normal aging process is accompanied by changes in the appearance of the thyroid gland, both macroscopic and microscopic. The changes in thyroid function attributable solely to aging are subtle and of questionable clinical significance. Instead, there is an increase in thyroid disease with increasing age. It can be challenging to accurately diagnose thyroid dysfunction in the elderly, since presenting symptoms may be atypical, and other co-morbid conditions may obscure the diagnosis. For these reasons, it is always important to consider the possibility of thyroid disease in the elderly. The lack of consensus about what constitutes a normal thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level for an elderly patient in turn leads to disparate recommendations on the threshold for initiating therapy for sub-clinical thyroid dysfunction and the target TSH level during therapy. We review the existing data on the prevalence, causes, clinical manifestations, diagnostic issues, and treatment of thyroid dysfunction in the elderly.

Keywords: Thyroid dysfunction, The elderly

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Age-related changes in thyroid hormone

Table 2

Comparison of clinical features of hypothyroidism in young versus elderly patients

Table 3

Comparison of clinical features of hyperthyroidism in young versus elderly patients

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