Correlation of serum thyroid stimulating hormone with body mass index in healthy adults.
Abstract
Background: Obesity, a chronic disease that is increasing
in prevalence in adults, adolescents and children, is
now considered a global epidemic. Thyroid dysfunction
contributes to the pathogenesis of obesity. Many clinical
studies raise the questions of whether thyroid-stimulating
hormone (TSH) changes in physiological limits is
associated with obesity and whether there is a link between
adipose tissue and hypothalamo-thyroidal axis.
Materials and Method:
This was a cross-sectional study. All
clinically euthyroid patients and healthy volunteer adults
of age 18 to 60 years of either gender were included in the
study. Fasting blood sample was taken for thyroid function
evaluation, which included Free T 3, Free T4 and thyroid
stimulating hormone. Height, weight, waist circumference
and hip circumference were measured. The results were
compared with calculated Body Mass Index (BMI).
Results: 61patients who met the inclusion criteria
were studied. Among 61 patients 16 had subclinical
hypothyroidism, 2 patients had hypothyroidism and 43
were euthyroid. Similarly, 2 underweight patients were
observed, 7 had normal weight, 13were over weight and
39 were obese .The mean TSH according to BMI were 3.8,
4.04, 3.88 and 6.19 respectively.
Conclusion: The result in this study showed that the mean TSH increased as BMI
increased with significant relationship between serum
TSH and BMI (p <0.001).Thus thyroid dysfunction mainly
subclinical hypothyroidism and hypothyroidism could be
found in association with increased body weight .