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Purpose “Non thyroidal illness syndrome” (NTIS) or “euthyroid sick syndrome” (ESS) is a possible biochemical finding in euthyroid patients with severe diseases. It is characterized by a reduction of serum T3 (fT3), sometimes followed by reduction of serum T4 (fT4). The relationship between thyroid hormones levels and mortality is well known and different studies showed a direct association between NTIS and mortality. The sudden spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV 2) infection (COVID-19) and its high mortality become a world healthcare problem. Our aim in this paper was to investigate if patients affected by COVID-19 presented NTIS and the relationship between thyroid function and severity of this infection. Methods We evaluated the thyroid function in two different groups of consecutive patients affected by COVID-19 with respect to a control group of euthyroid patients. Group A included patients hospitalized for COVID-19 pneumonia while patients requiring intensive care unit (ICU) for acute respiratory syndrome formed the group B. Group C identified the control group of euthyroid patients. Results Patients from group A and group B showed a statistically significant reduction in fT3 and TSH compared to group C. In group B, compared to group A, a further statistically significant reduction of fT3 and TSH was found. Conclusions COVID-19 in-patients can present NTIS. FT3 and TSH serum levels are lower in patients with more severe symptoms.

Morbidly obese subjects are characterized by multiple endocrine abnormalities and these are paralleled by unfavorable changes in body composition. In obese individuals, either 24-h spontaneous or stimulated GH secretion is impaired without an organic pituitary disease and the severity of the secretory defect is proportional to the degree of obesity. The GHRH+arginine (GHRH+ARG) test is likely to be the overall test of choice in clinical practice to differentiate GH deficiency (GHD) patients. Similarly to other provocative tests, GHRH+ARG is influenced by obesity per se. Therefore, a new cut-off limit of peak GH response of 4.2 μg/l in obese subjects has been recently assumed. The aim of the present study was to investigate the reciprocal influence between decreased GH secretion and body composition in a group of 110 morbidly obese subjects, using the new cut-off limit of peak GH response to GHRH+ARG test for these subjects. In our study, GHD was identified in 27.3% of the obese subjects, without gender difference. In GDH obese subjects body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), fat mass (FM), and resistance (R) were higher while reactance (Xc), phase angle, body cell mass (BCM), IGF-I, or IGF-I z-scores were lower than in normal responders (p