Assessment of Thyroid Hormone Status of Undernourished Children of District Okara, Punjab

Abstract

Objective: To assess thyroid hormone status of undernourished children and compare with that of adequately nourished children.
Methods: Seventy one subjects with required weight, height and age were recruited for this study and were divided into two groups: Malnourished group and adequately nourished group. After taking informed consent, relevant data was collected on the proforma, blood sample was taken for estimation of thyroid function test which includes serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), total thyroxine (T4) and total triiodothyronine (T3). Data was analysed by IBM SPSS version 21.p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) were higher in undernourished children (2.36 ± 0.30 μIU/ml) as compared to normal (1.3 μIU/ml) whereas levels of total triiodothyronine and total thyroxine, were lower in undernourished children as compared to normal.
Conclusions: These results strongly predict that in protein and energy malnutrition thyroid gland has to do extra effort to combat this condition as depicted by higher TSH levels and lower levels of T3 and T4.