Hyperthyroidism

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Had several cases of hyperthyroidism during a recent shift. All were mildly to moderately symptomatic, TSH undetectable, but none were in thyroid storm (no constitutional, cardiovascular, or neurologic symptoms). What do you guys usually do for these folks? All the references are pretty clear on what to do with thyroid storm, but not so much on the rest of the spectrum. Does anybody start them on meds while they wait for their follow up appointment?

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I had one of these recently. Symptoms for months, but new diagnosis upon seeing me. Very stable. I would have had no problem starting a med and discharging with follow up, but the patient had no PCP, was a weekend day so couldn't get in touch with a clinic to secure follow up, and I had no endocrine on call. I ended up admitting.
 
I had one of these recently. Symptoms for months, but new diagnosis upon seeing me. Very stable. I would have had no problem starting a med and discharging with follow up, but the patient had no PCP, was a weekend day so couldn't get in touch with a clinic to secure follow up, and I had no endocrine on call. I ended up admitting.

What would you start them on though?
 
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Any downside to having started it before they see you in clinic?
Depends. I'd love if you did a full thyroid panel and not just a TSH (which you might be, not trying to say one way or another). Would help me figure out etiology. Now if they can f/u with me in less than a week that doesn't matter. If its going to be 2+ weeks, it might.

Otherwise, not really. If you're worried about what your local PCP folks want, you can always just do the beta-blocker without the methimazole.
 
Depends. I'd love if you did a full thyroid panel and not just a TSH (which you might be, not trying to say one way or another). Would help me figure out etiology. Now if they can f/u with me in less than a week that doesn't matter. If its going to be 2+ weeks, it might.

Otherwise, not really. If you're worried about what your local PCP folks want, you can always just do the beta-blocker without the methimazole.

Yeah, I am wondering what to do in the setting when the follow up is a lot longer than in 2 weeks and if the PCPs might not have access to the results in the EMR. The beta-blocker option seems like a good one. Thanks for the thoughts.
 
Yeah, I am wondering what to do in the setting when the follow up is a lot longer than in 2 weeks and if the PCPs might not have access to the results in the EMR. The beta-blocker option seems like a good one. Thanks for the thoughts.
You could always give the patient the lab results. I know it has nothing to do with you, but I get tired of patients bringing me their ED discharge paperwork which from my perspective is completely useless. The actual results would be great though.
 
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You could always give the patient the lab results. I know it has nothing to do with you, but I get tired of patients bringing me their ED discharge paperwork which from my perspective is completely useless. The actual results would be great though.
Why don't you have your staff get the records from the hospital prior to the visit, or have them ask the patient to go t medical records themselves? I agree with you though, I always get a kick out of it when a patient makes a big deal out of showing me their paperwork and it turns out to be generic dc forms with absolutely no relavant info.

As to the OP, I typically will do PE of the below:
1. Start a beta blocker +\- methimizole
2. Call PMD or medicine on call o arrange followup and discuss preferred treatment.
3. Not check a TSH in the first place. I don't really get testing for this condition in the ED, unless you think it's storm or myxedema. Not an emergency

A patient would have to be pretty damn symptomatic for me to admit hyperthyroidism (w/o storm of course)
 
Why don't you have your staff get the records from the hospital prior to the visit, or have them ask the patient to go t medical records themselves? I agree with you though, I always get a kick out of it when a patient makes a big deal out of showing me their paperwork and it turns out to be generic dc forms with absolutely no relavant info.

As to the OP, I typically will do PE of the below:
1. Start a beta blocker +\- methimizole
2. Call PMD or medicine on call o arrange followup and discuss preferred treatment.
3. Not check a TSH in the first place. I don't really get testing for this condition in the ED, unless you think it's storm or myxedema. Not an emergency

A patient would have to be pretty damn symptomatic for me to admit hyperthyroidism (w/o storm of course)
Because they don't always say why they're coming. Often times its "Needs a PCP" with no more information. If I don't know its an ED f/u, I don't even know to have the patient bring records.

I'm lucky in that the local hospitals send this stuff pretty quickly when we call, but that hasn't always been the case.
 
Depends. I'd love if you did a full thyroid panel and not just a TSH (which you might be, not trying to say one way or another). Would help me figure out etiology. Now if they can f/u with me in less than a week that doesn't matter. If its going to be 2+ weeks, it might.

Otherwise, not really. If you're worried about what your local PCP folks want, you can always just do the beta-blocker without the methimazole.

I've done this before for patients with thyrotoxicosis (low TSH, high T4, tachycardia but otherwise well, not consistent with Thyroid Storm based on Burch-Warchofsky score). I'll start them on a beta blocker and if I can control their heart rate I dc them to follow up with endocrine within 1 week. I leave it to endocrine how they actually want treat the hyperthyroid.
 
Had several cases of hyperthyroidism during a recent shift. All were mildly to moderately symptomatic, TSH undetectable, but none were in thyroid storm (no constitutional, cardiovascular, or neurologic symptoms). What do you guys usually do for these folks? All the references are pretty clear on what to do with thyroid storm, but not so much on the rest of the spectrum. Does anybody start them on meds while they wait for their follow up appointment?

If you're where I did fellowship, the answer would inevitably be "Call Endocrine". I swear, I was called by the ED maybe a dozen times in all of fellowship, and all but 2 were for thyrotoxicosis that did not meet criteria for storm. The same held for my cofellows - the ER was perfectly happy managing all kinds of suspected Endocrine issues (suspected adrenal insufficiency was a perennial favorite), almost always in a reasonable fashion, but for some reason would often call for thyrotoxicosis.

That said, the answer from our service more or less never changed - newly diagnosed thyrotoxicosis in a non-pregnant adult who isn't in storm can be treated symptomatically (beta blockade) but until you've ruled out thyroiditis as an etiology, we typically would prefer not to muddy the picture with thionamide therapy (methimazole/PTU). Ideally, in my perfect world, you'd make sure you had a full set of TFTs (TSH, Free T4, either a total or free T3 depending on which is more reliable in your lab - and either is fine really) plus a TSH receptor antibody or thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin (both TRAB and TSI are fine in my book, some providers quibble over which they prefer) and an urgent referral to me.

The antibody testing (if positive) saves me/the patient time/effort, but it's obviously not something that you need to wait to result in the ED - it's just helpful for when the patient follows up.
 
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If you're where I did fellowship, the answer would inevitably be "Call Endocrine". I swear, I was called by the ED maybe a dozen times in all of fellowship, and all but 2 were for thyrotoxicosis that did not meet criteria for storm. The same held for my cofellows - the ER was perfectly happy managing all kinds of suspected Endocrine issues (suspected adrenal insufficiency was a perennial favorite), almost always in a reasonable fashion, but for some reason would often call for thyrotoxicosis.

That said, the answer from our service more or less never changed - newly diagnosed thyrotoxicosis in a non-pregnant adult who isn't in storm can be treated symptomatically (beta blockade) but until you've ruled out thyroiditis as an etiology, we typically would prefer not to muddy the picture with thionamide therapy (methimazole/PTU). Ideally, in my perfect world, you'd make sure you had a full set of TFTs (TSH, Free T4, either a total or free T3 depending on which is more reliable in your lab - and either is fine really) plus a TSH receptor antibody or thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin (both TRAB and TSI are fine in my book, some providers quibble over which they prefer) and an urgent referral to me.

The antibody testing (if positive) saves me/the patient time/effort, but it's obviously not something that you need to wait to result in the ED - it's just helpful for when the patient follows up.

This is really helpful, thanks!
 
Why don't you have your staff get the records from the hospital prior to the visit, or have them ask the patient to go t medical records themselves? I agree with you though, I always get a kick out of it when a patient makes a big deal out of showing me their paperwork and it turns out to be generic dc forms with absolutely no relavant info.

As to the OP, I typically will do PE of the below:
1. Start a beta blocker +\- methimizole
2. Call PMD or medicine on call o arrange followup and discuss preferred treatment.
3. Not check a TSH in the first place. I don't really get testing for this condition in the ED, unless you think it's storm or myxedema. Not an emergency

A patient would have to be pretty damn symptomatic for me to admit hyperthyroidism (w/o storm of course)

I'm confused. Maybe I am misunderstanding, but whybwould you start treatment for hyperthyroidism when you haven't diagnosed hyperthyroidism?
 
Sorry to be unclear I meant to imply that I do not frequently test for hyperthyroidism, unless the patient is presenting with storm.
Eh, someone coming in to the ED with recurrent palpitations and weight loss a TSH is reasonable. At least where I trained, it came back in 30 minutes and the patient was able to leave with a diagnosis and hopefully a referral for further management.
 
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Eh, someone coming in to the ED with recurrent palpitations and weight loss a TSH is reasonable. At least where I trained, it came back in 30 minutes and the patient was able to leave with a diagnosis and hopefully a referral for further management.
Sure, I'm not a nihilist and have diagnosed hyperthyroidism. However, that's not the typical patient getting worked up in your local ED. I have colleagues who send off a TSH as part of the routine w/u for anyone who's weak/dizzy/fatigued/crazy
 
Sorry to be unclear I meant to imply that I do not frequently test for hyperthyroidism, unless the patient is presenting with storm.

In the ED I'll send TSH / Free T4 for unexplained tachycardia. NND (number needed to diagnose) is probably 70. :-(

So I don't send it in my first wave of labs, but if I have HR 115 and can't figure out why, at some point I'll send it.
 
If I’ve got a hypertensive and tachy pt +/- goiter where hyperthyroid is on ddx, I’ll commonly send for reflexive tsh. It comes back pretty fast. For BWPS > 25, dispo is easy and I always bring them in. For those < 25, I typically consult endo, if for nothing more than to establish clear f/u. We have endo on call but remember, even if they aren’t on call for your hospital, you can always consult any specialist at your closest tertiary care. Back when I moonlighted in some backwoods ERs, I would do that on occasion to get help with a particular difficult case and they were always glad to help even if you weren’t interested in transferring.
 
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