Prevalence of thyroid dysfunction and thyroid auto antibodies in type 2 diabetic patients

Objective: to investigate the relationship between thyroid dysfunction and thyroid autoimmunity, and diabetes mellitus (dm). methodology: eight hundred twenty type 2 diabetic patients attending to diabetes clinic of ahvaz university were screened for t4, t3, t3ru, tsh, hba1c, anti-tpo ab, anti-tg a. other variables were sex, age, and blood sugar lowering drugs. results: about 20 percent of patients had one type of thyroid dysfunction: subclinical or clinical hypothyroidism and subclinical to overt hyperthyroidism which had significant relationship with sex (p = 0.003) but not with age (p =0.141). high levels of anti-tpo ab and anti-tg ab were seen in 33.9% and 32.7% of patients, respectively. conclusion: due to high prevalence of thyroid dysfunction and thyroid autoantibodies in patients with type 2 diabetes, we suggest all patients with type 2 diabetes should undergo annual screening by serum tsh measurement.