ESPE Abstracts

Background: It’s well known that overt hypothyroidism leads to weight and body fat content increase but there is limited data in the literature about the effect of subclinical hypothyroidism (SH) on body composition parameters.

Objective and hypotheses: In our previous study body composition parameters were evaluated in patients with SH and it was concluded that trunk fat mass was increased in SH patients before any alterations in basal metabolism rate occur. In this study we aimed to assess the body composition via bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) in SH patients and determine the effect of LT4 treatment on body composition parameters.

Method: Twenty patients diagnosed with subclinical hypothyroidism in-between 5–13 years were involved in the study. All the patients were evaluated with BIA (Tanita MC-780MA) before LT4 treatment and on the 6th month of LT4 treatment. The evaluated body composition parameters were as follows: weight, height, body mass index (BMI), body fat (%), trunk fat mass (TFM) (kg, %), fat-free mass (FFM) (kg, %), trunk fat-free mass (TFFM) (kg), trunk muscle mass (TMM) (kg), and total body fluid (TBF) (kg,%).

Results: Mean age of the patients was 8.17±2.73 years. TFFM (before treatment 13.13 kg±4.23 kg, after treatment 14.09 kg±4.66 kg; P=0.000) and TMM (before treatment 12.30 kg±4.05 kg, after treatment 13.20 kg±4.5 kg; P=0.000) were increased after LT4 treatment and found statistically significant.

Conclusion: According data shows that after LT4 treatment, TFFM and TMM of the patients were increased, which shows the positive metabolic effect of correction of subclinical hypothyroidism. Identification of metabolic alterations in early stages of thyroid disease and correct intervention is important for prevention of obesity in these cases.