SUBCLINICAL TO MILD HYPERTHYROIDISM IN CATS: ISSUES IN DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

摘要

Hyperthyroidism is one of the commonly diagnosed disorders in older cats, present in approximately 10% of senior and geriatric cats (>10 years) in the USA today. This feline disease is being diagnosed at a much earlier stage than it was a decade or more ago, in part because of the annual geriatric screening programs for hyperthyroidism employed by many veterinarians. Because many cats are currently diagnosed with milder degrees of hyperthyroidism than in the past, they tend to have fewer (and less severe) clinical signs and abnormalities detected on physical examination. Many cats diagnosed today have no clinical issues discerned by their owners and are only first recognized as being hyperthyroid on the basis of serum thyroid hormone test results (i.e., slightly high total or free T4 concentrations).This paper will review what is currently known about mild and subclinical hyperthyroidism in cats. My aim is to clarify common questions, which include the following: (1) how common is mild and subclinical hyperthyroidism? (2) how should we diagnose mild and subclinical hyperthyroidism? (3) how do we best treat these conditions? (4) and finally, do we even need to treat mild and subclinical hyperthyroidism or is monitoring the best way of managing these cats?