Liver Dysfunction in Hypothyroid Non-Pregnant Women

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effects of under secretion of thyroid hormones and its relation with liver markers i.e. alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) in non-pregnant women.
 Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar from March 2014 to March 2015. The study was performed on 150 non-pregnant women in the age group of 18-70, attending the outpatients departments of Khyber Teaching Hospital for thyroid screening. The exclusion criteria were pregnancy, hypertension, renal impairment and known history of liver ab- normalities. Thyroid and liver function tests were performed for all the patients and control using standard kits and procedure. Normal subjects in the same age group were selected randomly from the local population of Peshawar city and were used as control (N) for the study. Competitive ELISA tech- nique was used for the analysis of T3 and T4 on Dia 710 microplate reader, while sandwich ELISA was used for TSH analysis. Quantitative tests for both ALT and AST were performed according to the international federation of clinical chemist (IFCC) protocols on Erbamannhein chemistry auto-analyser (Germany) using standard Erba kits.
 Results: ALT and AST level was found to be lower in the patient groups [Overtly hypothyroid (Oh): 24.35 ± 1.11 IU/L, sub-clinically hypothyroid (Sh): 16.85 ± 0.55 IU/L] than the control group (N: 29.69 ±3.28 IU/L). A significant positive correlation was observed between AST and TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) in the control group (N) (p=0.002) and negative correlation in overtly hypothyroid (Oh) and sub-clinically hypothyroid (Sh) groups, respectively. No other significant correlation was observed be- tween ALT, TSH, T3 (triiodothyronine) and T4 (thyroxine) in any other groups.
 Conclusion: Both liver enzymes (ALT and AST) were found to be lower in the patients groups (Oh and Sh) as compared to control group (N).