I have a question about liver

[Joannagof1]

a girl told me that she was prescribed thyroxine by mistake and now the edno said she must do liver test to see if she has damaged her liver.She also told me that levo can damage seriously the liver and so people who take levo must reguraly test their liver for damage.But people like me who had tt have no option that take levo for their rest of their life.None my edno or the hospital doctors have ever said that to me what is true?

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

I wonder how thyroxine got prescribed by mistake. A mistake by the doctor or the pharmacist?

Personally I haven't heard that it can seriously damage the liver. In 2011 levothyroxine was reported to be the third most dispensed medication in England. With it being so widely used I would imagine we may have heard if it really does seriously affect the liver, and I'm sure ThyroidUK would have mentioned it.

To put things into perspective, I have been taking thyroxine for 43 years, never in that time has it ever been mentioned that I needed a liver function test to check for any damage. However, for the last 18 months I have been taking a medication that can, in some people, cause liver problems and I have regular 3 monthly liver function tests now. I can say that all my tests come back absolutely fine and the results are stable.

I have checked the patient information leaflet in my Levo packet and nowhere does it mention damage to the liver or getting regular liver function tests. If there was any problems I feel sure it would be mentioned in the PIL.

Whoever this girl was, I would take what she has said with a very large pinch of salt and not worry about it.

[bantam12 in reply to SeasideSusie]

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/105...

I've had elevated liver enzymes for years, possibly Levo related as no other cause has been found.

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to bantam12]

The Pub Med article is quoting just one case. If it was common I'm sure we would see a lot more evidence.

[bantam12 in reply to SeasideSusie]

There are others.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to SeasideSusie]

I have had a GP get liver functions tests done for me - spontaneously - simply because I am on levothyroxine. Like many things, seems somewhat random - one GP will, another wouldn't even think of it.

[curiousboy in reply to helvella]

I have recently started on levo. My initial TSH was above 100. I am on 50mcg. Right now my TSH is 4.9. My liver enzymes are high. ALt around 200 and AST around 100.

[humanbean]

a girl told me that she was prescribed thyroxine by mistake

We would need more information to make sense of this.

It is possible that the girl had a TSH which was high in range or over the range and her GP prescribed Levothyroxine. Then, for some unknown reason, she was seen by an endo who only diagnosed and treated hypothyroidism with a TSH over 10 and a Free T4 which was under the range, so told the girl she didn't need it.

I find it extremely unlikely that someone would prescribe levothyroxine by mistake, although a doctor who confused hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism might do it (it has been known to happen). However if that was the case it wouldn't be her liver that an endo would worry about it would be her heart and her bones. Doctors are usually fixated on heart and bone problems when treating a thyroid problem.

[Joannagof1 in reply to humanbean]

they gave her wrong thyroid lab test results.

[Shelley1954]

Ever since I was started on Levo 2001, I have had to have annual liver & kidney blood tests.

[elwins]

I have been on thyroid meds for 60 odd years and do not have regular liver tests. Never heard about thyroxine causing problems.

[LAHs]

Well, the liver is the main task master for converting our T4 to T3 so it's not a bad idea to keep an eye on it's health. The liver also gets rid of the toxin alcohol. I have noticed that I cannot drink more than one glass of wine with my dinner any more (which is a good thing). I am not sure how alcohol tolerance decreases with age so I cannot say if it is my intake of thyroid meds or just getting old, but my liver's response has definitely changed over the last few years. Last Christmas I politely accepted a Manhattan, I was terribly ill for two days, It didn't used to be like that!

But regarding the OP's question I wouldn't image that one brief ingestion of un-needed T4 could cause permanent damage - it would be good to know how long the mistaken T4 was used and how old was the girl, Joanna, do you know?

[silverfox7]

From what I have gathered it's not enough T4 that causes liver problems. I have fatty liver and that cropped up when I did a bit of digging some time ago.