Endocrine Abstracts

Background and Aim: Prevalence of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is increasing in Turkey. GH deficiency has been reported to associate with this disorder in several different ethnic population. The aim of this study was to evaluate GH deficiency in the population with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

Materials and methods: Euthyroid Hashimoto’s thyroiditis patients, who admitted to the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism of Hacettepe University, were included to the study. Demographic and laboratory data of patients were recorded.

Results: One hundred ninety three patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis were evaluated (17 males, 176 females (8.8 vs 91.2%)). Mean age was 39.94±11.02 (min: 18 years, max: 64 years). There were no co-morbid conditions in any patients. One hundred and eleven of them were using medications containing L-thyroxine (57.5%). IGF1 levels of 179 patients (92.8%) were normal. Fourteen patients had low levels of IGF1. Glucagon stimulation testing in 14 subjects revealed GH deficiency (peak <3 μg/l) in only one subject. This subject had no response to insulin tolerance test either and she was put GH replacement therapy. Our data reveals the prevalence of GH deficiency in this particular group of Turkish Hashimoto’s thyroiditis patients was 0.5%.

Conclusion: We conclude that isolated GH deficiency is rarely observed in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis patients. There were diverse outcomes of different studies about GH deficiency in Hashimoto’s patients from different ethnic backgrounds (0.4–5%). This preliminary study on this issue demonstrated that GH deficiency is 0.5% this particular group of Turkish Hashimoto’s thyroiditis patients.