The Effect Of Thyroid Hormone Normalization On Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring In Hypothyroid Patients

Objective: It is well known that thyroid hormones regulate cardiovascular function. Thyroid disease is extremely common with a prevalence of 9–15% in the general population. The aim of our study was to assess the effects of thyroid hormones on the changes of blood pressure and pulse wave in a cohort of hypothyroid patients. Design and method: a total of 24 patients with severe hypothyroidism were enrolled in this study. Follow-up data are available for 11 patients, after normalization of their thyroid hormone profile. At baseline and after normalization of thyroid hormone profile, patients underwent an ABPM and an arterial tonometry. Data were analyzed with the statistical software R (version 3.0.3). In particular, patients were compared by Wilcoxon test for paired data, as they didn’t have normal gaussian distributions. Results: hypothyroid patients presented with overt thyroid disease (TSH 58,66 ± 47,50). Our preliminary data show that after euthyroidism restoration (TSH 2,21 ± 1,21), there weren’t any variations in global systolic and diastolic blood pressure, meanwhile their variability was reduced. In particular, this was observed for global sistolic variability (p value 0.05) and there was a decrease with borderline significance of global diastolic variability (p value 0.06). We did not observe any difference in terms of mean arterial pressure, PWV, and the other pulse wave analysis parameters Conclusions: our preliminary data suggest that euthyroidism restoration with levothyroxine can significantly reduce blood pressure variability in hypothyroid patients. This confirms the importance of thyroid hormones for blood pressure control.