A Prospective Study on Alterations in Thyroid functions in Type 2 Diabetic Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM), a common endocrine metabolic disorder, is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Patients with diabetes have a higher prevalence of thyroid disorders when compared with general population. Alteration in thyroid function complicates the management of DM and its complications.

Materials & Methods: This study was conducted from June 2015 to June 2016 in Medicine Department of Department of Medicine, KIMS, Bhubaneswar. 50 patients with known Type 2 DM or newly detected cases were included in the study. All the patients were evaluated for thyroid dysfunction by testing thyroid profile (triiodothyronine, thyroxine, and thyroid-stimulating hormone). The correlation of prevalence of thyroid disorder with gender distribution, age distribution, duration of diabetes, hypertension, family history of diabetes was then done. The observations and interpretations were recorded, and results obtained were statistically analysed.

Results: In this study, age of the patient ranges from 35 to 70 years with maximum number of patients between the age group 41 and 60 years. In our study, 16% of the patients with Type 2 DM had abnormal thyroid profile. Among abnormal thyroid profile, the most common abnormality was subclinical hypothyroidism (62.5%) followed by subclinical hyperthyroidism (25%) followed by overt hypothyroidism. The prevalence of thyroid abnormality is more common in females than in males.

Conclusion: The occurrence of thyroid dysfunction among Type 2 DM patients is very high (16%) with subclinical hypothyroidism is being most common. Therefore, endocrinologists/clinicians should go for thyoid profile check in all type 2 diabetic patients.