Endocrine Abstracts

Background: High prevalence of thyroid disorders is more common in T1 compared to T2 Diabetes Mellitus due to the associated autoimmunity, with hypothyroidism being the most common disorder.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of autoimmune thyroid dysfunction among T2 diabetic Egyptian females and to find the correlation between the metabolic syndrome components and autoimmune thyroid dysfunction.

Methods: The study included 62 T2 diabetic Egyptian female subjects and 27 sex and aged matched controls. All patients in the study were subjected to anthropometric measures, HbA1c, lipid profile, serum uric acid, TSH, FT3, FT4, Anti TPO, Anti TG and thyroid ultrasound.

Results: Hypothyroidism was found in 45.2% of patients (5.49±3.37 μIU/ml) vs 11.1% of controls (1.79±1.21 μIU/ml) (P<0.001). Anti TPO was found in 75.8% (347.15±244.87 IU/ml) of patients vs 7.4% (32.89±33.26 IU/ml) of control (P<0.001). Anti TG was found in 61.3% (508.03±369.16 IU/ml) of patients versus 0% (51.26±35.53 IU/ml) of control (P<0.001). A significant positive correlation was found between TSH and antithyroid antibodies (ATG, ATPO) (P: 0.002, 0.043 respectively) and between TSH and thyroid gland volume (P: 0.002) in diabetic patients. No correlation was found between all components of metabolic syndrome and thyroid antibodies in diabetic patients.

Conclusion: Autoimmune thyroid disease is more common in Egyptian women with T2 diabetes than non diabetic women and therefore raising a role of autoimmunity in the pathogenesis of T2DM.

Keywords: autoimmune thyroid disease, TSH, Anti TPO, Anti TG, T2 Diabetes, Metabolic syndrome