Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Hypothyroidism is a common endocrine disorder. Common causes are autoimmune disease such as Hashimoto’ thyroiditis, surgical removal of the thyroid, drug induced and radioactive iodine (RAI) ablation.

Aim: The aim of our study was to determine the etiology of hypothyroidism in Nepalese patients.

Method: This is a retrospective study conducted in our opd from May 2015 to April 2019 in which data was collected from the patient record files of the subjects diagnosed with hypothyroidism. A total of 1000 patients with hypothyroidism were enrolled for this study.

Result: The findings of the study revealed that, out of 1000 hypothyroid patient, 83.2% were female and 16.8% were male. Among them 11.9% (n = 119) had a family history of hypothyroidism, 0.6% (n = 6) had undergone RAI Ablation and 0.4% (n = 4) had total thyroidectomy. 0.8% (n = 8) cases were congenital and out of them 0.7% (n = 7) had thyroid agenesis and 0.1% (n = 1) had ectopic thyroid (lingual thyroid). 50% (n = 500) cases were autoimmune with antiTPO antibody positivity. In 36.3%(n = 363), cause could not be determined.

Conclusion: The most common etiological diagnosis of hypothyroidism in Nepalese patients was autoimmune (Hashimoto’ thyroiditis). However, cause could not be determined in many patients.