European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

STUDY ON THYROID HORMONE PROFILE IN CRITICALLY ILL PATIENTS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN KOLKATA

M.K. Gupta, K. Sarkar*, D. Gonjhu, S.N. Haldar, P.K. Kundu and N. Pramanik

ABSTRACT

Objective: Critical illness is a life threatening condition and the greatest challenge for a physician. Our objective was to study the thyroid hormone profile in critically ill patients and to determine the relationship between thyroid hormone level and mortality /morbidity in critically ill patients. Materials and Methods: In our single centre, prospective, observational study, 114 consecutive patients admitted to CCU irrespective of diagnosis were included. Patients with previous thyroid disorders and drugs affecting thyroid function, pregnant woman and age <18 year were excluded from this study. All participants underwent complete physical examination and total triiodothyronine (TT3), total thyroxine (TT4), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4). The patients were divided into two groups: Group 1 - survivors (discharged from the hospital) and Group 2 - nonsurvivors (patients succumbed to their illness inside the hospital). The data were analyzed by appropriate statistical methods and a P-value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results: 31.5% of the patients died and were in the non survivor group, and 68.5% patients were in the survivor group. The mean age group of the patients was 51.38±13.25 years. Low T3 and T4 were shown to increase the risk of dying from critical illness by 3.77 & 9.61 times more respectively. Morbidity data analysis showed that low values of all the thyroid hormones were significantly associated with longer duration of hospital stay (p<0.001).Conclusion: Our study showed that low T3 and low T4 levels during critical illness, increases the risk of mortality. Low T3 is the strongest predictor among the thyroid hormones along with APACHE II scores for mortality.

Keywords: Critically ill, medical CCU, thyroid hormone profile.