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Endocrine Abstracts (2009) 20 P169

Facultad de Medicina, Univerdidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Queretaro, Mexico.


It is important to know the prevalence of common diseases in every country in order to guide us to take decisions regarding public health benefits in screening, in Mexico we do not have information regarding thyroid abnormalities.

Methods: We designed a cross-sectional study in the city of Queretaro (Mexico) in order to know the prevalence of altered thyroid function tests in our population, since we do not have any previous study. We calculated the sample size with the statistical program Epi Info according to the population size and prevalence from previous reports and we obtained a number of 210 individuals.

We went to different public places and factories to invite in a random way the people to participate in the survey; they signed informed consent approved by the local bioethics committee.

We asked questions related to thyroid disease, then we withdrew a blood sample for TSH and free T4.

Results: We included 212 individuals, 119 (56.4%) were female, 92 (43.6%) males. The mean age was 38+9.95 years old. We found 3 (1.4%) with TSH >10 uUI/ml; 10 (4.8%) patients with TSH >4 and <10 uUI/ml; 2 (1%) patients with TSH <0.4 uUI/ml and high free T4; 3 (1.4%) with TSH<0.4 uUI/ml and normal free T4 level. In total we found 18 (8.6%) patients with abnormalities in the thyroid function tests. According to previous reports our population has a prevalence similar to other populations. It is very important to have this data since we do not have information in order to encourage screening programs in our country. This is a relatively young population and it can be due to the open invitation that we did to the people in public places and at work places. It will be interesting to design a specific survey in older people that we did not find at public places, since they are expected to have higher prevalence.

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