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Severe hypothyroidism and myxedema coma can be evaluated with a single laboratory test, but these diagnoses are delayed when clinical suspicion is not high. With a reported mortality between 20% and 50% with treatment, these conditions are fatal if the diagnosis is missed. This case series presents two patients in which the timeline for checking serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) impacted time to treatment and duration of severe life-threatening symptoms.
Flynn et al. (Wed,) studied this question.