International Journal of Clinical Case Reports 2018, Vol.8, No.3, 10-13
10
Research Report Open Access
Glucose Abnormalities in Hypothyroidism
Said Azzoug
1, 2
, Souad Chellali
3
, Fatma Zohra Boudissa
3
, El Hadj Ahmed Koceir
3
, Djamila Meskine
1, 2
, Farida Chentli
4
1 Endocrine Diseases Department, Bologhine Hospital, Algiers, Algeria
2 Laboratory of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Algiers University, Algeria
3 Department of Biology, USTHB University, Algiers, Algeria
4 Endocrine Diseases Department, Bab El Oued Hospital, Algiers, Algeria
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Clinical Case Reports 2018, Vol.8, No.3 doi
Received: 12 Feb., 2018
Accepted: 21 Mar., 2018
Published: 13 Apr., 2018
Copyright © 2018
Azzoug et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Azzoug S., Chellali S., Boudissa F.Z., Koceir E.H.A., Meskine D., and Chentli F., 2018, Glucose abnormalities in hypothyroidism, International Journal of
Clinical Case Reports, 8(3): 10-13 (doi
Abstract
It is classically known that thyroid hormones excess or hyperthyroidism induce hyperglycemia. However, thyroid
hormone deficiency or hypothyroidism can also induce glucose abnormalities through the development of abdominal obesity and
insulin resistance. The aim of our study was to assess the frequency and predictive factors of glucose abnormalities during
hypothyroidism. In this retrospective study, we included 425 patients (383 F/42 M) presenting with primary hypothyroidism. We
investigated the presence of hyperglycemia, either fasting (
≥
100 mg/dl) and/or at 2 hours after an oral glucose tolerance test with 75
grams of glucose (
≥
140 mg/dl). Hyperglycemia was found in 37.6%. Subjects with hyperglycemia were older than those with
normoglycemia (54.4
1.08 vs. 45.7
0.8 years), their Body Mass Index (BMI) was higher (31.5
0.53 vs. 28.7
0.37 kg/m
2
), they
had
higher blood pressure (54.3% vs. 21.5%) and a family history of diabetes (36.2% vs. 29.8%). We conclude that glucose abnormalities
are frequent in hypothyroidism and are developed mostly in patients with risk factors for insulin resistance such as age, high blood
pressure and a positive family history of type 2 diabetes.
Keywords
Hypothyroidism; Hyperglycemia; Insulin resistance
Background
Due to their ubiquitous actions, thyroid hormone deficiency can have clinical and metabolic consequences. It has
been established that hypothyroidism can induce insulin resistance that predisposes to glucose abnormalities.
The aim of our study was to assess the frequency and predictive factors of glucose abnormalities during
hypothyroidism.
1 Subjects and Methods
This is a retrospective study including 425 patients (383 F/42 M) presenting with primary hypothyroidism. We
have investigated the presence of hyperglycemia in our patients, either fasting glycemia ≥ 100 mg/dl and/or
glycemia after oral glucose tolerance test with 75 grams of glucose (OGTT) ≥ 140 mg/dl.
Thereafter, we have compared patients with hyperglycemia to patients with normoglycemia for a set of factors
such as age, Body Mass Index (BMI), Free Thyroxine (FT4) level, triglyceride level, personal antecedent of High
Blood Pressure (HBP) and positive family history of type 2 diabetes to look for predictive factors of
hyperglycemia in hypothyroidism.
2 Results
Out of 425 patients, 36.7% had hyperglycemia. In order to search for predictive factors, we compared hypothyroid
patients with hyperglycemia to hypothyroid patients with normal blood glucose levels as depicted in Table 1.
After treatment of hypothyroidism and normalization of thyroid hormones levels, patients who had hyperglycemia
were reevaluated. Patients in whom hyperglycemia persisted were compared to patients who resumed normal
blood glucose levels as depicted in Table 2.
