Publication:

Thyroid function test in relation with hypertension

Background The most common cause of cardiovascular disease affecting human is hypertension and reported that they may have tendency for impaired thyroid function. T3 acts directly on arterial smooth muscle of blood vessels to cause vasodilatation, when hypothyroidism occurs; declining T3 level increases the vascular resistance and the level of blood pressure. Clinically, hypertension may be defined as that level of blood pressure at which the institution of therapy reduces blood-pressure-related morbidity and mortality. The aim of our study was to assess the correlation and association of thyroid function with hypertension.

Methods This case-control study was conducted in the Department of Medicine Government Medical College Jammu from August 2017 to August 2018 on 75 subjects with hypertension.

Results The male to female ratio was 62.7% to 37.3%.  Among total patients, 12 came out to be hyperthyroid, 6 cases were hypothyroid while 5 and 13 pertained to subclinical hyperthyroidism/ hypothyroidism respectively. The comparative values of T3 among Cases and Controls showed significant variation. However, the values of T4, TSH and FT3 showed no significant correlation. It was shown that hyperthyroidism can cause hypertension, i.e.  Hypothyroidism is positively related to hypertension.

Conclusions Thus it was observed in our study that there was significant relation between thyroid dysfunction with hypertension. Screening should be recommended for all the hypertensive patients to rule out thyroid dysfunction.