New , easy way to estimate ATD dosage?

[Guest guest]

I was researching ATDs on the Stanford Highwire site and found this:

A Saleh, G Fürst, J Feldkamp, E Godehardt, A Grust, and U Mödder

" Estimation of antithyroid drug dose in Graves' disease: value of

quantification of thyroid blood flow with color duplex sonography. "

This is a German study published in Ultrasound Med Biol, August 1,

2001 -

By using color-flow mapping of the thyroid arteries, researchers were

able to calculate something called color pixel density (CPD). They

found a strong correlation between this CPD and methimazole dosage.

They felt this might be a tool for the endocrinologist to use in

estimating a methimazole dose that would be needed to maintain

euthyroidism in each patient.

If this could be investigated, we could save all kinds of

rollercoaster rides - using thyroid doppler ultrasound to estimate

the optimal ATD dosage - at least with MMI, and maybe even PTU.

Instead of fooling around with doses that are too high, too low,

constantly changing doses, etc., this could tell us how much ATD is

needed without the aggravating and time-consuming guesswork.

Wonder if any endos know about this yet? Yeah, right! The times

they are a changin' ---

Chris