European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Introduction: Hypothyroidism is associated with decreased thermogenesis, decreased metabolic rate, and has also been shown to correlate with a higher body mass index (BMI) and a higher prevalence of obesity. There is clinical evidence suggesting that even mild thyroid dysfunction in the form of subclinical hypothyroidism is linked to significant changes in body weight and represents a risk factor for overweight and obesity. It has been further noted that small variations in serum TSH caused by minimal changes in Thyroxin dosage during replacement therapy are associated with significantly altered resting energy expenditure in hypothyroid patients. Methods: This is a prospective study conducted in the Department of General Medicine, Shadan Institute of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital and Research Centre over a period of 1 year among 60 subjects. The variables collected were gender, age, thyroid dysfunction etiology, TSH levels, free levothyroxine (FT4) levels, presence of thyroid autoimmunity (considered as detection of anti-thyroperoxidase antibodies and/or TSH receptor antibodies), BMI and weight at the time of referral to the Department and after normalization of thyroid hormone levels after treatment. Result: T3 and TSH of control group (2.32±0.21, 83.54±8.35) respectively. In the mean of them in the second visit (1.35±0.11, 36.23±16.24) respectively in comparison with control group. The correlation between T3 and T4 in the first visit which revealed that there was strong positive correlation (r=0.432) with a highly significant difference (P=0.00). Correlation between T3 and TSH in this table showed that there was a weak negative relationship (r =-0.103) with a non-significant difference (P=0.325). In correlation between T4 and TSH there was a weak negative correlation (r= -0.024) with a highly significant difference (P= 0.542). Between T4 and BMI there was a weakly negative correlation (r = -0.019) with a non-significant difference (P=0.431). Conclusion: The number of patients with an elevated BMI (obese) differs significantly from the others. Thyroxin played a part in a lower BMI. Finding hypothyroid patients as soon as feasible is crucial