Prasantha Kumar Thankappan1
BACKGROUND
It has been noted of the interdependence and impact of diabetes mellitus and
thyroid dysfunction on each other. Prevalence of thyroid dysfunction was found
to be higher in individuals with diabetes mellitus. Most commonly associated
thyroid dysfunction in diabetes was hypothyroidism. Hyperthyroidism can
precipitate complications in diabetes mellitus. The purpose of this study was to
assess the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction and dyslipidaemia in type 2 diabetes
mellitus patients.
METHODS
This cross-sectional study included a total number of 100 type-2 diabetic patients
aged >15 years. All the patients were evaluated for thyroid dysfunction and
dyslipidaemia by estimating triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4) and thyroid
stimulating hormone (TSH) and lipid profile [total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides
(TGA-c), high density lipoprotein (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein (LDL-C)].The
correlation of prevalence of thyroid disorder with gender distribution, age
distribution, HbA1C, duration of diabetes, family history of thyroid disorder, body
mass index (BMI), usage of oral hypoglycaemic agents (OHA’s) and insulin and
dyslipidaemia was carried out. The observations and interpretations were
recorded and results obtained were statistically analysed. This study was
conducted from December 2018 to November 2019 at Government Medical
College, Kottayam, Kerala.
RESULTS
The study revealed a high prevalence (26 %) of thyroid disorders in patients with
type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), most common being hypothyroidism (20 %)
which was further found to be more in females, patients with uncontrolled
diabetes i.e. HbA1C values ≥ 8.7 or patients on OHA and patients with BMI > 25.
High prevalence of dyslipidaemia in diabetics (62 %) was observed; of which 51
% had hypertriglyceridaemia, 49 % had decreased HDL-C, 47 % had hyper
cholesterolaemia and 43 % had increased LDL-C. Only 30.6 % diabetics with
dyslipidaemia had thyroid dysfunction.
CONCLUSIONS
Screening of thyroid dysfunction should be done in all diabetic patients especially
in patients with poor glycaemic control as micro vascular complications were
commonly observed in this group of patients with dual endocrine disorders.
There is a high prevalence of dyslipidaemia in diabetics.
