Presence of subclinical hypothyroidism among patients having metabolic syndrome-A Cross-sectional study

Introduction: Thyroid gland is an imperative organ and is immense in terms of the overall burden of thyroid disease and metabolic syndrome. The study focused on observing the presence of subclinical hypothyroidism in metabolic syndrome patients. Methodology: The study design of this research was crosssectional and it was conducted at Department of Endocrinology and Metabolic Medicine, Mayo Hospital, Lahore from February 2020 to September 2020. Total 186 patients with metabolic syndrome were included. Blood pressure, abdominal circumference, serum glucose levels, serum triglycerides and serum HDL levels were recorded. Serum Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH), free T3 and free T4 levels were checked for assessing the subclinical hypothyroidism. The diagnosis of metabolic syndrome was made by National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel (NCEP) and Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP-III) diagnostic criteria. Data were analyzed using software SPSS v25.0. Stratification of age, gender and socioeconomic status was done to see their effect on outcome variable. For post-stratification, Chi-Square test was used; p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Out of total 186 patients with metabolic syndrome, there were 58.6% male and 41.4% female. The mean age of the patients was 50.6 ± 11.8 year. Frequency of subclinical hypothyroidism among patients with metabolic syndrome was observed in 34(18.3%) patients. Conclusion: In patients with metabolic syndrome the incidence of subclinical hypothyroidism was statistically significant.