Cybernetic modelling of thyroid homeostasis for clinical trials and medical decision making

What is it about?

Mathematical modelling of thyroid homeostasis based on principles of biomedical cybernetics delivers valuable tools to clinical research and it helps to improve discriminatory power to laboratory testing. This article gives an outline of the methodology and it summarizes the results of clinical trials and evaluation studies. In addition, it provides previously unpublished results of formal validation with Monte Carlo simulation.

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Why is it important?

This perspective article describes the most influential models of hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid feedback control: 1) The UCLA platform, a set of cybernetic models developed by the group of Joseph DiStefano 2) The logarithmic standard model of thyroid homeostasis that delivered the foundation of Jostel's TSH index 3) The MiMe-NoCoDI platform, a family of models enabling vertical integration from the molecular level to that of the whole organism. It forms the foundation of the SPINA (structure parameter inference approach) methodology, delivering estimates for thyroid's secretory capacity (SPINA-GT) and sum activity of peripheral deiodinases (SPINA-GD). 4) The MiMe-Log model, the so-called "minimal model" of thyroid homeostasis. It provides a methodology for reconstructing the personal set point of hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis.