Frequency of Hypothyroidism among Chronic Kidney Disease in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Objective: To assess the prevalence of hypothyroidism and its association with socio-demographic factors, serum creatinine, and thyroid profile in chronic renal disease patients who visit a tertiary care facility in Karachi, Pakistan. Methodology: At the Nephrology ward of the Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College in Karachi, this cross-sectional study was conducted from Jan 2022 to Jul 2022. All patients with chronic renal failure who were older than 18 years and of either gender were enrolled in the study. The patient’s complete medical history was gathered, which included details on their age, co-morbidities, baseline renal function, and thyroid profile. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 25. Results: The median age of included patients was 60 years with an interquartile range of 52 to 65 years. Of 127 patients with chronic kidney disease, 14.2% had hypothyroidism. Patients with hypothyroidism had marginally higher serum creatinine levels than patients without the condition. The difference in serum creatinine between patients with and without hypothyroidism was statistically insignificant (p=0.655). Significantly elevated TSH was observed in hypothyroidism patients (p=0.001), while significantly lower FT3 (p=0.001) and FT4 (p=0.001) were observed in hypothyroidism patients as compared to non-hypothyroid patients. The duration of chronic kidney disease was higher in hypothyroid patients as compared to non-hypothyroid patients (p=0.048). The proportion of diabetes (p=0.050) and cardiovascular disease (p=0.050) was significantly different among patients with and without hypothyroid. Conclusion: Hypothyroidism is common in patients with chronic kidney disease and is significantly associated with serum creatinine, thyroid profile, duration of disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Thus, it is crucial to keep an eye on thyroid function in people with chronic kidney disease.