SPINA / News: Recent posts

SPINA_Thyr has been released in version 4.2.1. This new version fixes several minor bugs. It is compatible with Windows (32 and 64 bits), macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) and several Unix and Linux variants.

https://spina.sourceforge.net
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3596049
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10700532

Version 5.0 of the SPINA Functions for S and R is available. It implements SPINA Carb and is capable of calculating secretory capacity of pancreatic beta cells (SPINA-GBeta) and insulin receptor gain (SPINA-GR) as well.

With immediate effect, SPINA Thyr 4.2 (Kontinuum) is available at Sourceforge and Zenodo. This is a major new release that provides new features including roaming folder support and bug fixes. The new version is available for macOS, Windows and Linux from http://spina.sourceforge.net or via the DOI 10.5281/zenodo.3596049.

With immediate effect, SPINA Thyr 4.1.1, a bug fix release mainly addressing issues on Windows 10 and macOS Catalina, is available from http://spina.sf.net .

SPINA Thyr has been updated to version 4.1. This is a major upgrade, which comes with a plethora of new features including enhanced Drag & Drop support, export of LOINC identifiers, support for comments in case records and compatibility with macOS Cocoa. SPINA Thyr 4.1 is available for Windows, Linux and macOS from http://spina.sf.net.

In 2018, the SPINA methodology continued to enjoy world-wide scientific interest. More and more papers from several countries and continents demonstrated interesting physiological and clinical implications of calculated structure parameters.

The paper by a group in South Korea demonstrated in patients suffering from Graves’ disease that thyroid’s secretory capacity (SPINA-GT) and total deiodinase activity (SPINA-GD) correlate to basal metabolic rate and that these parameters decrease during treatment [1]. This is an interesting confirmation of the physiological validity of these parameters.... read more

Recently, we published a package for the statistical environment R that implements SPINA. If facilitates calculating SPINA-GT and SPINA-GD as well as Jostel's TSH index and TTSI.

Although the previously published generic S functions are usable with R, too, the new package makes it easier to integrate SPINA Thyr in the evaluation of clinical trials and in large-scale computational statistics.

SPINA for R (key word "SPINA") can be directly downloaded and installed from R's package management menu. More information is available from https://cran.r-project.org/package=SPINA .

In 2017, SPINA Thyr was used for at least five research papers with more than 4000 participants in sum, and for one review article (I may have missed some third-party papers. Please contributes additional publications from 2017 you may be aware of).

A working group from Istanbul compared patients suffering from subclinical hypothyroidism with healthy controls. The trial covering 56 participants [1] showed that thyroid's secretory capacity (SPINA-GT) correlates to Tp-e interval, Tp-e/QT ratio and Tp-e/QTC ratio in ECG recordings. The results demonstrate that structural thyroid diseases (including "sublatent" disorders) may be associated with myocardial remodeling. This may have significant consequences for future thyrocardiac research.... read more

A recent trial published in the journal Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism demonstrated that patients with ensuing hypothyroidism have increased T-wave dispersion as quantified with Tp-e interval, Tp-e/QT ratio and Tp-e/QTc ratio from resting ECG. SPINA-GT, which was significantly lower in a group with subclinical hypothyroidism compared to normal controls, showed a significant negative correlation to the Tp-e interval (r = −0.54, p < 0.01).... read more

The newest LOINC version, release 2.58, published on December 12st, 2016, includes thyroid's secretory capacity (SPINA-GT) and sum activity of peripheral deiodinases (SPINA-GD) with the codes 82368-2 and 82367-4, respectively.

LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes) is a database and standard of universal identifiers for laboratory and other clinical observations. It facilitates exchange and storage of clinical results or vital signs for patient care and clinical research. LOINC is endorsed and/or recommended by the American Clinical Laboratory Association, the College of American Pathologists (CAP), Deutsches Institut für Medizinische Dokumentation und Information (DIMDI), and the organisations for Health Level 7 (HL7) and Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) as well as by other national and international organisations. Covering SPINA in LOINC will facilitate exchange of calculation results in hospital information systems, electronic health records and other platforms for medical communication.... read more

SPINA Thyr 4.0.1 has been tested with macOS 10.12 (Sierra) and found to be compatible and well functional.

On August 23rd, 2016 the Regenstrief Institute, colocated at the Indiana University School of Medicine and creator of the LOINC standard, announced to include SPINA-GT and SPINA-GD in the next version of LOINC. LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes) is a database and standard of universal identifiers for laboratory and other clinical observations. It facilitates exchange and storage of clinical results or vital signs for patient care and clinical research. LOINC is endorsed and/or recommended by the American Clinical Laboratory Association, the College of American Pathologists (CAP), Deutsches Institut für Medizinische Dokumentation und Information (DIMDI), and the organisations for Health Level 7 (HL7) and Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) as well as by other national and international organisations.... read more

Recent research based on SPINA and numeric simulations with SimThyr had suggested the existence of a functional TSH-T3 shunt in humans. This hypothesis was now re-evaluated in a study with 271 thyroid-healthy subjects and 86 untreated patients with thyroid autoimmune disease. The study, which has been published in the European Thyroid Journal, found a significant and nonlinear negative association between SPINA-GD and SPINA-GT, even after correction for spurious correlation. The results of this study demonstrate that the euthyroid panel doesn't follow a homogeneous pattern to produce randomly-distributed TSH concentrations and thyroid hormones, but that it forms a heterogeneous group displaying distinctly different levels of homeostatic equilibria across the euthyroid range. It also confirms earlier assumptions that the TSH-T3 shunt mediates a compensatory response, where a sinking thyroid's secretory capacity is partly offset by increasing deiodination, thus maintaining FT3 concentrations in a normal range despite beginning hypothyroidism.... read more

A recently published perspective article, which was authored by an international team of contributors in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology, reviews theoretical background and diagnostic utility of SPINA-GT, SPINA-GD and other calculated parameters of thyroid homeostasis. In addition to results of computer simulations with SimThyr, which confirm earlier observations that SPINA has higher reliability than native concentrations of TSH and peripheral thyroid hormones, it summarizes the results of clinical studies covering more than 10,000 subjects. Beyond SPINA it also describes other calculated parameters including a recently published algorithm for reconstructing the set point of thyroid homeostasis, Jostel's TSH index as a measure for pituitary function and a set of integrated models based on the UCLA platform.... read more

Recently, SPINA Thyr has been curated by SciCrunch.

SciCrunch, a "researcher content management system designed for dynamic data", is a key tool of the Resource Identification Initiative. From now on, authors can easily cite SPINA Thyr by adding its RRID to their papers.

See http://scicrunch.org/browse/resources/SCR_014352 and https://www.force11.org/group/resource-identification-initiative for more details.... read more

Recently, a trial with 353 subjects on steady-state L-T4 replacement dose for autoimmune thyroiditis or after surgery for malignant or benign thyroid disease was published in Endocrine Connections.

It revealed that substitution dose was independently associated with gender, age, aetiology and deiodinase capacity (all p<0.001). Stratifying patients by deiodinase activity (SPINA-GD) categories of <23, 23-29 and >29 nmol/s revealed an increasing FT3-FT4 dissociation; the poorest converters showed the lowest FT3 levels in spite of highest dose and circulating FT4 (p<0.001).... read more

SPiNA Thyr has been released in version 4.0.1. This is a bug fix release, which addresses an issue that was introduced with version 4.0 and that resulted in inability of the program to calculate, if reference values were undefined. Additionally it fixes a crash that occurred, if the file open dialog for HL7 files was cancelled.

Results of a large clinical observation study suggest that thyroid homeostasis might be more complex than previously assumed. Combining data of more than 1000 patients with results of computer simulations delivered new hints that in humans TSH might stimulate deiodinase activity in vivo.

For a long time it was known that cAMP up-regulates both type 1 and type 2 deiodinase, and it could also be shown that TSH (which stimulates intracellular cAMP release) is able to increase deiodination on both transcriptional and post-translational levels. However, these observations resulted from animal experiments and cell culture investigations only, and it was unknown if they are of relevance in humans in vivo.... read more

With immediate effect SPINA Thyr is available in version 4.0. This is a major upgrade that implements a plethora of new functions.

SPINA Thyr is now able to calculate z-transformed standardised variants of SPINA-GD and Jostel's TSH index, two Gaussian distributed structure parameters for peripheral deiodination and pituitary function. Additionally, the export of findings as HL7 messages, which is now the standard export format, has been improved, and SPINA Thyr is now able to read findings in HL7's ORU^R01 format. Together with the new import and export functions an editor for basic patient data has been introduced.... read more

Results of a new trial making use of SPINA have recently been published in Clinical Endocrinology.
This study investigated patterns of thyroid homeostasis in 1912 subjects with different thyroid conditions. It revealed that correlations between FT3, FT4 and TSH were modulated by multiple factors including age, body mass, thyroid volume, antibody status and L-T4 treatment. FT3 levels and calculated deiodinase activity (SPINA-GD) were significantly lower in subjects treated with levothyroxine.... read more

SPINA Thyr has been released in version 3.4.2.

This hot fix release resolves an issue where calculation of TTSI could result in wrong values under certain conditions. Since this error may result in false negative results with regard to screening for resistance to thyroid hormones (Refetoff syndrome, RTH) it is highly encouraged to download and install the new version. Usage of SPINA Thyr versions 3.4 or 3.4.1 is no longer recommended.... read more

With immediate effect SPINA Thyr is available in version 3.4.1. This is a bug fix release that addresses known issues predominantly affecting Windows and Linux.

Ab sofort ist SPINA Thyr in der Version 3.4.1 verfügbar. Diese Version korrigiert einige kleinere Fehler, insbesondere unter Windows und Linux.

SPINA Thyr has been released in version 3.4. This new version is a major upgrade that implements a plethora of new functions. The most important new feature is the option to calculate Jostel's TSH index and TTSI, two simple estimates of central homeostatic function that have been requested my many users. Additionally, SPINA Thyr is now able to export results of calculations as text files or HL7 messages. Moreover, handling of reference ranges has been improved and multiple bugs were fixed.... read more

SPINA Thyr has been released in version 3.3.1. This bug-fix release addresses multiple minor issues. Additionally, it is the first code-signed version, which allows easier launching on modern versions of Mac OS X.

SPINA Thyr 3.3.1 is available from http://spina.sf.net or http://spina.berlios.de.

With immediate effect, SPINA Thyr is available in version 3.3.

This is the most significant update to SPINA Thyr since version 3.0. New features of SPINA Thyr 3.3 include a reporting module for reference values, an option that allows for recording substitution therapy with thyroid hormones and an improved printing function. Additionally, numerous bugs have been fixed.

SPINA Thyr 3.3 is free software that is available for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux from http://spina.sf.net. Older versions are still available for Mac OS Classic and Palm OS.