Dyslipidemia and Impaired Glucose Tolerance in Hypothyroid Patients - A Case Control Study.

Background: Hypothyroidism is associated with metabolic syndrome. Several studies have shown that hypothyroidism is linked to dysglycemia and dyslipidemia that leads to diabetes mellitus and atherosclerosis with clinical manifestations. Aim: To determine the relationship of dyslipidemia and dysglycemia with the thyroid status in patients with hypothyroidism. Methodology: 100 subjects were included, 50 hypothyroid patients and 50 controls were selected in the age group of 20-50yrs. the parameters determined were waist circumference, fasting serum glucose, oral glucose tolerance test, thyroid profile, lipid profile, fasting serum insulin, and HOMA-IR. Results: In this study it was found that hypothyroidism was associated with obesity. Waist circumference (p=0.004) was significantly increased in hypothyroid patients when compared to controls. The mean value of triglycerides in test group was 159.22 ± 19.88 mg/dl compared to the mean of the control group which was 143.14 ± 28.97 mg/dl and was highly significant (p<0.001). The mean value of LDL in test group was 184.26±24.75 mg/dl compared to the mean of the control group which was 148.08±41.57 mg/dl and was statistically significant p<0.001. The mean value of HDL in test group was 39.74±5.67 mg/dl compared to the mean of HDL in the control group which was 44.06±8.83 mg/dl and was statistically significant p=0.003. The mean of HOMA-IR in test group was 9.10 ± 3.73 when compared to the mean in the control group which was 4.95 ± 2.08 and was found to be statistically significant (p<0.001). TSH correlated positively with insulin (0.64) and HOMA-IR (0.69) and it was statistically significant p<0.001. Conclusion: Central obesity in hypothyroidism is well established in this study with elevated waist circumference. Hypercholesterolemia is a constant feature of hypothyroidism with elevated LDL-cholesterol and decreased level of HDL-cholesterol. Impaired glucose tolerance was found to be more prevalent in hypothyroid patients, they are also found to have elevated insulin resistance. Together impaired glucose tolerance and elevated insulin resistance imply that hypothyroid patients are more prone to develop type 2 diabetes mellitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]