SPINA
Ruhr-Universität Bochum




SPINA Thyr 4.2
Structure parameter inference approach for endocrine feedback control


SPINA Thyr


SPINA (structure parameter inference approach) is a method that delivers estimated structure parameters of endocrine feedback control systems in vivo from serum or plasma hormone levels. The algorithm is based on equilibrium analysis of a compartmental nonlinear model.

The first successful implementation of this cybernetic approach applies to evaluation of thyroid function. It allows for calculating the thyroid's maximum secretory capacity (GT or SPINA-GT) and the sum activity of peripheral 5'-deiodinases (GD or SPINA-GD) from levels of TSH, (F)T4 and (F)T3 that have been determined once only (SPINA Thyr).

A second version has been developed for insulin-glucose homeostasis. It delivers the secretory capacity of pancreatic beta cells (SPINA-GBeta), an estimate for the insulin receptor gain (SPINA-GR) and a static disposition index as a measure for the loop gain of the feedback loop (SPINA-DI).

Both implementations of SPINA have been validated in clinical studies on the basis of large cohorts.
They are increasingly used in experimental research. SPINA Thyr has been evaluated in clinical trials covering more than 10,000 subjects with various disorders of thyroid homeostais. Additional applications targeting other endocrine feedback loops are currently being developed or prepared, respectively.

SPINA Thyr is a free application that calculates GT and GD. It is offered on the base of a BSD licence. Binaries are available for macOS, Palm OS, Garnet OS and Windows. For other operating systems, including Linux, Solaris and BSD, SPINA Thyr is available as sourcecode. Building from source requires THINK Pascal (for Mac OS Classic), winsoft PocketStudio (for Palm OS / Garnet OS) or Lazarus/Free Pascal (for macOS / Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, BSD and Solaris). A special version of the calculation engine is available for modern S implementation, e.g. R.








SPINA Thyr on macOS
                                          Catalina
SPINA Thyr on Windows 7
SPINA Thyr on Mac OS X 10.5
                                      (Leopard)



SPINA project entry at
                    sourceforge.net