ECE2019 Poster Presentations Thyroid 3 (74 abstracts)
1Department of Zoology, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Rawalpindi, Pakistan; 2Aga Khan Health Center, Rawalpindi, Pakistan; 3Department of Animal Sciences, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan; 4The University of Wah, Wah Cantt, Pakistan; 5University of Lahore, Islamabad Campus, Islamabad, Pakistan; 6Reproductive Physiology, Public Health Laboratories Division, National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, Pakistan; 7Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), Islamabad, Pakistan; 8Department of Zoology, University of Central Punjab, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Stress is any uncomfortable emotional experience accompanied by predictable psychological, physiological and behavioral changes. A sudden and severe stress generally produces an increase in the heart rate and blood pressure and induces a state of alertness in an individual. Evidence indicates that chronic stress depresses thyroid function, resulting in low levels of T3 and T4, which affects cardiomyocytes function and leads to development of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The present study aimed to determine the effect of stress on thyroid function in terms of release of cortisol and its effects on T3 and development of hypertension and related CVDs. Hundred hypertensive CVD patients and hundred normotensive subjects between the age of 21 and 60 years were included in the study. Blood samples were collected and plasma cortisol and T3 concentrations were determined by using RIA systems. Data were analyzed using Students t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation r. Our results indicated that 68% patients had high cortisol levels demonstrating that they were experiencing some kind of stress. Moreover, 69% patients had low T3 levels indicating that most of our hypertensive CVD patients were suffering from hypothyroidism. In addition, a negative correlation was observed between cortisol and T3 levels, whereas a positive correlation was witnessed between cortisol concentrations and BP and blood glucose levels. A negative correlation was observed between T3 and BP and blood glucose levels. The majority of patients fell between the age group of 4150 years, had primary level of education, belonged to low income socio-economic status, had exercise free lifestyle with no diet plan, were overweight, married, smokers, had disease duration of <1 year, without family history of hypertension and had anterior wall myocardial infarction. In conclusion, the current investigation demonstrated that most of CVDs patients had high cortisol and low T3 concentrations irrespective of any or no treatment.