Relation between metabolic syndrome and thyroid volume and nodular thyroid diseases in elderly adults with metabolic syndrome

Abstract

Background

One of the most common clinical thyroid related disorders is thyroid nodules (TNs). The metabolic syndrome (Mets) frequency rise significantly with age, TNs are prevalent in older adults, and their incidence increases with age. Additionally, it was noted that Mets patients also had elevated thyroid volume and nodularity. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between metabolic syndrome and its components with thyroid volume and nodular thyroid disease in older individuals with Mets.

Subjects and methods

A case–control was done on 160 patients > 60 years of age, of whom 80 elderly patients diagnosed with Mets and 80 healthy elderly or don't meet the criteria of Mets as control. We assessed the thyroid volume and TNs presence utilizing ultrasound, as well as many biochemical, metabolic, and anthropometric data. The study only included individuals with normal thyroid functions. Subjects from both groups had their data compared, and statistical analysis was done.

Results

Cases of Mets had significantly higher incidences of large thyroid volume (40% vs 20%; P = 0.022) as well as significantly higher prevalence of thyroid nodules when compared to control group (61.3% vs 35.0%; P = 0.001). In addition, Mets patients had a considerably greater incidence of Bethesda 4 follicular neoplasm as compared to controls controls (30% vs 9.5%; P = 0.006). Our study also showed that there's significant positive correlation between insulin resistance measured by HOMA IR with thyroid volume (r = 0.286; P < 0.001), and number of thyroid nodules (r = 0.193; P = 0.015) in the entire study population.

Conclusion

Our study highlighted the relationship between Mets and thyroid morphology and pathology in elderly patients and it showed that cases with Mets had significantly elevated TNs number and thyroid volume when compared to control, and also cases with Mets had a considerably greater incidence of Bethesda 4 follicular neoplasm as compared to controls.