Serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1, soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, and soluble interleukin-1 receptor antagonist in patients with thyroid eye disease undergoing treatment with somatostatin analogues

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Octreotide and Somatostatin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The aim of this prospective, randomized study was to investigate the serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1), soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1), and soluble interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (sIL-1RA) in patients with thyroid eye disease (TED) before and 1 and 3 months after treatment with somatostatin analogues (SM-a).

Why It Was Studied

Twenty-two patients (13 females) had active eye disease with a clinical activity score (CAS) > or = 4 (patients with active disease [PA]) and 8 patients (5 females) had inactive TED with CAS < or = 3 (patients with inactive disease [PI]).

All PA patients had a positive orbital octreoscan, whereas PI patients had a negative one.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 8 patients taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Octreotide and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Octreotide could be set against what happens without it.

What Was Measured

Twenty-two patients (13 females) had active eye disease with a clinical activity score (CAS) > or = 4 (patients with active disease [PA]) and 8 patients (5 females) had inactive TED with CAS < or = 3 (patients with inactive disease [PI]).

TED was reevaluated using the CAS 1 and 3 months after the initiation of SM-a treatment.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Cell Adhesion Molecules, Eye Diseases, Hormones, Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1, Interleukin 1 Receptor Antagonist Protein, Octreotide and Peptides, Cyclic.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Octreotide and Somatostatin in 8 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The publication is from 2001 (Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Octreotide compound page and the Somatostatin compound page, all human trials.