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Endocrinology Drug Index
Name: Levothyroxine sodium
Pregnancy Category A
Drug classes
Thyroid hormone
Therapeutic actions
Increases the metabolic rate of body tissues, thereby increasing
oxygen
consumption; R and heart rate; rate of fat, protein, and carbohydrate
metabolism; and growth and maturation.
Indications
Replacement therapy in hypothyroidism
Pituitary TSH suppression in the treatment and prevention of euthyroid
goiters and in the management of thyroid cancer
Thyrotoxicosis in conjunction with antithyroid drugs and to prevent
goitrogenesis, hypothyroidism, and thyrotoxicosis during pregnancy
Treatment of myxedema coma
Contraindications/cautions
Contraindicated in the presence of allergy to active or extraneous
constituents of drug, thyrotoxicosis, and acute MI uncomplicated by
hypothyroidism.
Use caution in the presence of Addison's disease (treatment of
hypoadrenalism with corticosteroids should precede thyroid therapy)
and
lactation.
Adverse effects
- Endocrine: Symptoms of hyperthyroidism
- Dermatologic: Allergic skin reactions, partial loss of hair in first
few months of therapy in children
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