A Study on Renal Function Tests in Subclinical Hypo and Hyperthyroid Disorders

Introduction: Thyroid hormones have many important biological functions in our body. One of the major functions is control of the basal metabolic rate and calorigenesis. Thyroid dysfunction causes remarkable changes in glomerular and tubular functions. In recent studies, it was found that hypo and hyperthyroidism associated with renal derangement resulting in abnormal serum creatinine and uric acid levels. Thus, this study was conducted for estimation and observation of changes in urea and creatinine in subclinical hypo and hyperthyroidism.

Materials and Methods: Total 90 subjects were included in the study. Out of which 30 cases were clinically diagnosed subclinical hypothyroid patients and 30 were subclinical hyperthyroid, remaining 30 were controls. Triiodothyronine (T3), Thyroxin (T4), and TSH were estimated by fully automated Beckman coulter Access-2 analyzer. Urea, uric acid and creatinine parameters were measured using automated clinical chemistry analyzer. Statistical data analysis was performed by using SPSS 18.2 software.     

Results: Patients with subclinical hypothyroidism showed significant increase in serum uric acid and creatinine levels (p<0.0001) and patients with SC hyperthyroidism showed significant decrease in serum creatinine levels (p<0.0001). When correlated with TSH, serum creatinine showed positive correlation where it has negative for serum uric acid in case of SC hypothyroidism cases. For SC hyperthyroid cases, correlation was negative for serum creatinine and uric acid levels.

Conclusion: The overall result of our study indicate that the urea, creatinine, uric acid levels were significantly impaired in subclinical hypo and hyperthyroidism. Therefore, we would emphasize the importance of the routine evaluation of these biochemical parameters in thyroid disorders.