Invited commentary: Cardiovascular mortality in subclinical hyperthyroidism: an ongoing dilemma

Abstract

The association of endogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism (SHyper) with cardiovascular mortality is controversial. This may reflect the different causes of endogenous SHyper in the population studied due to differences in iodine intake, and different selection criteria, e.g. sex, age, and race, the cutoff for serum TSH level, the duration of follow-up, and the presence of co-morbidities. A small sample size of SHyper patients could have caused a low statistical power in some of these studies. In other studies, the results were not adjusted for relevant confounders. Importantly, various meta-analyses have also given conflicting results. This issue of the European Journal of Endocrinology contains two articles that address the association between endogenous SHyper and cardiovascular and total mortality: one study was conducted in a north-eastern German population and the other in a Japanese-Brazilian population. After adjusting for relevant confounders, there was no association between decreased serum TSH levels and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the Pomerania study; on the contrary, all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality were significantly higher for individuals with SHyper in the Japanese-Brazilian population. Interestingly, both studies had similar characteristics in terms of selection criteria and duration of follow-up. It remains controversial whether or not to treat middle-aged patients with low serum TSH levels. Large prospective randomized controlled double-blind studies of young and middle-aged patients with SHyper and without underlying cardiac disease are required to assess the potential benefits of treating endogenous SHyper in these age groups.