Evaluation of Thyroid Hormones Levels in Libyan Patients with Chronic Renal Failure before and after Maintenance Hemodialy

摘要

Data from recent studies revealed that kidney diseases might affect the thyroid function in various ways. A variety of alterations in thyroid hormone levels and metabolism have also been reported in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) in some studied population. In addition, it was reported that serum levels of both T3 and T4 might alter immediately after a hemodialysis (HD) treatment than before. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the level of triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) in CRF Libyan patients before and after HD. This study was carried out on 46 CRF patients (30 males and 16 females) with a mean age of 47.46 ± 15.75 years. These patients were treated at the hemodialysis unit of Educational Central Zelitin Hospital, Zelitin, Libya. None of these patients apparently have any thyroid problems and no history of drug intake that may affect thyroid function. Blood samples were taken from each patient to measure serum levels of T3 and T4, before and after HD. In addition, the effects of several variables including age, gender, body mass index (BMI), presence of both hypertension and, diabetes mellitus and duration of kidney dialysis on serum levels of T3 and T4 before and after HD were also studied. After HD, there was a statistically significant increase in the serum levels of T3, T4. The age, gender, BMI, duration of kidney dialysis and the presence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus did not have any significant effect on the serum level of T3 and T4 before and after HD. However, the serum levels of T3 and T4 were still in the normal range in these examined patients either before or after HD. From these findings, it can be concluded that these CRF patients may be in a euthyroid state, because the serum levels of T3 and T4 were in the normal range. In addition, HD was seemed to improve the T3 and T4 thyroid hormone concentrations, suggesting that HD might activate the secretion of thyroid gland and catabolism. The other variables did not play any role in thyroid hormone levels in these patients either before or after HD. It is highly recommended that large scale evaluation of thyroid hormone levels in Libyan CRF patients is performed by more patients, especially elderly patients.