Healthcare

Levothryoxine drug is medication often used in the patients with thyroid problems to replaces their thyroid hormone.

While several adverse effects has been linked to this drug such as arrhythmias and cardiac effects, side effect to neuromuscluar function and muscle strength, and osteoporosis, new study has found that this drug also linked to fracture incidences in older adults.

This risk just reported in the archive of British Medical Journal on April 28, 2011, by study authors, Marci R. Turner, from the Department of Medicine of the University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues.

They wrote that among adults aged 70 or more, “current levothyroxine treatment was associated with a significantly increased risk of fracture, with a strong dose-response relation.”

The risk of fracture in older adults in this study appeared after the study authors assessed population-based health databases in Ontario, Canada.
Of 213,511 total adults (aged 70 years or older) who were prescribed with levothyroxine between April 1, 2002, and March 31, 2007, 22,236 cohort members (10.4%) had fracture during follow-up (3.8 years).
The fractures incidences included wrist or forearm, shoulder or upper arm, thoracic spine, lumbar spine and pelvis, hip or femur, or lower leg or ankle.

For levothyroxine doses and odds ratio (OR) of fracture risk in this study;
- 0.093 mg/day for high dose with OR of 3.45.

In this study, women had higher fracture risk (88%) and the risk remain significant in current user compared with remote levothyroxine user, even after adjustment for several risk factors.

The authors suggested that ongoing monitoring after prescribed with levothyroxine dose is important to avoid overtreatment in this population.