Thyroid hormone as a therapeutic option for treating ischaemic heart disease: from early reperfusion to late remodelling.

Thyroid hormone (TH), apart from its "classical" actions on cardiac contractility and heart rhythm, appears to regulate various intracellular signalling pathways related to response to stress and cardiac remodelling. There is now accumulating experimental and clinical evidence showing a beneficial effect of TH on limiting myocardial ischaemic injury, preventing/reversing post infarction cardiac remodelling and improving cardiac hemodynamics. Thyroid analogs have already been developed and may allow TH use in clinical practice. However, the efficacy of TH in the treatment of cardiac diseases is now awaiting to be tested in large clinical trials. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.