Evaluation of Thyroid Hormone Dysfunction in Patients of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background: The co-existence of both diabetes and thyroid disorders has been associated with increased long-term morbidity and mortality. The present study was conducted to find out the relationship between type 2 DM and thyroid dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes. Material and Methods: A total of 160 diabetic patients and 80 controls were randomly selected from diabetic & medicine OPD/IPD/ICU in Department of Medicine, MLB Medical College Jhansi over the period of 2012 to 2014. Thyroid profile was sent and cases were compared to controls using Chi square test. Results: The study showed that thyroid dysfunction was more prevalent in diabetic subjects than in controls. Difference in TSH was more significant between study and control groups (p<0.01). The difference of mean of free T4 between cases & control was statistically low in females (p<0.0001) but the mean of free T4 in males although low in cases as compared to control was not statistically significant (p=0.38). The mean TSH was more in cases as compared to controls in both males & females & the difference was statistically significant in both males (0.0042) and females (0.0104). Subclinical hypothyroidism was significantly more common than overt hypothyroidism. Conclusions: The study shows that hypothyroidism was associated with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. TSH level is more affected than FT4 level indicating that subclinical hypothyroidism is more common than overt hypothyroidism in Type 2 Diabetes patients. The study also showed that the thyroid status of females was more deranged as compared to males.