Propylthiouracil (PTU) Hepatotoxicity and Graves’ Disease Therapy

Several interesting points came to mind when I reviewed the NICE-SUGAR study; the degree of severe hypoglycemia, the degree of cardiovascular mortality, the conventional group’s blood glucose levels are significantly lower than the vast majority of other outcome studies, and the number of severe septic patients in the intensive control branch of the study. According to the 2008 sepsis guidelines, the glycemic control target level for the septic patient is already in question and perhaps sepsis should be an exclusion criteria?

I was tasked with the development and oversight of a Tight Glycemic Control Program pilot study from May 2006 through April 2008 for a South Texas community hospital/level 2 trauma center. This included a 14 bed CCU, 12 bed M/S ICU and 12 bed trauma ICU as well as 4 M/S wards. Clinical inertia was our most difficult element to overcome and for the most part this was never accomplished. Clinical inertia was not only evident on physician’s part, but also administration, nursing, nutritional services, pharmacy, and the patients themselves. Accountability to noncompliance to protocols was lacking as well. The philosophy that inpatient glycemic control was not necessarily treating diabetes, yet acute hyperglycemia was never fully accepted. When results like ACCORD, ADVANCE, and VADT were released, I would usually take the phone off the hook and leave the hospital because those wbeepdo not support inpatient glycemic control would come out en mass wishing to compare apples to oranges. That is not necessarily the case with NICE-SUGAR. In our Trauma ICU, where support was highest, for the entire year of 2007, we had only 7% BG > 200mg/dL, less than 2% hypoglycemia under 50 mg/dL, and nearly 75% BG between 80 – 150 mg/dL.

Overall, I applaud the NICE-SUGAR research team for a job very well done and thank them for their contribution to this ongoing discussion. I do support further research to differentiate specific glycemic control target ranges for specific diagnosis, but I too fear this could cause a pendulum swing in the opposite direction resulting in less facilities participating in inpatient glycemic control resulting in less data for differentiation.

I think that the central goal of the ADA/AACE impatient glucose targets is safe with the protocols .
Hospitals should have protocols in place for using insulin to treat and prevent hyperglycemia.
Subcutaneous insulin may be used for both purposes in most noncritically ill patients, whereas intravenous infusion of
insulin is preferred in critically ill patients.
Be careful with this trial [NICE -SUGAR] to overcome clinical inertia.

Dear Dr Hellman:
I enjoyed all the editorials on patients’ safety that you have recently published. I think that they raise questions which we as physicians are not always open about. Safety itself is frequently a topic that we love to discuss but it’s never our fault. In this connection, the article about overconfidence and medical errors is timely – especially, at this time of expected health care changes. Briefly, I do not think we as physicians are different from any other specialists in different areas. Lack of adequate knowledge in a special area is always a good reason to be noisy and seemingly overconfident. Most of us agree that the more you know the more you realize how much more you do not know. Overconfident behavior in front of outsiders seem to be the cover of ignorance. I think we have to improve medical education in order to make medical decisions safer. Just remember the pilot of the plane that landed in Hudson river – quiet professional on top of his performance. We in medical profession must lead in patients’ safety. In order to do that we have to lead the health care reform. We have to regain our authority, responsibility and accountability. (accountability without authority and responsibility is meaningless – see Dr Hellman’s article on Medicare). We have to lead the health education of the society – most of the tragic mistakes in life happen from ignorance. First and foremost, of course, we have to maintain the superiority in medical knowledge. We must improve the quality of medical education. Instead of multiple choice questions we have to put back in place the stern professor wbeepmade clinical judgements based on knowledge, experience, and gut feeling and set up a good personal example for the next generation of physicians. Pilot “Sully” did not read the manual and the guidelines how to handle the critical situation – all his life before, however, prepared him for the right on the spot decision. Decisions based on profound knowledge and experience are the safest! Let’s start the health care reform with ourselves.
Do not stop learning and teaching your team about sound and safe medical practices. When we have achieved that, we can confidently go out and regain our authority over various bureaucracies (government agencies-Medicare, insurances, medical malpractice law, etc).

There was an article in acta scandinavia in january that showed very little hypoglycemia when intensive therapy is done right! I came across the article on medlinx in mid January, but it was actually published in October 2008. authors: Kaukonen KM et al in acta anaethesiol scandinavia and titled severe hypoglycemia in intensive insulin therapy.