Analysis of thyroid stimulating hormone (thyrotrophin) level as a gold standard marker for assessing frequency of subclinical hypothyroidism in the first fifteen weeks of gestation.

Abstract

Objective: To find out the frequency of subclinical hypothyroidism in the first trimester of pregnancy. Study Design: Cross-Sectional study. Setting: Bacha Khan Medical Complex Swabi. Period: May 2019 to October 2019. Material & Methods: Total ninety (90) subjects visiting antenatal unit were taken for the study by using non-probability sampling technique. The sample size was calculated by Andrew Fisher’s formula. After the informed consent 5ml of blood was collected in EDTA tube from the enrolled patient. The blood was centrifuged and their serum was preserved in cuvets for forthcoming TSH analysis. The cut-off value for TSH was 4.0 mIU/L as per new American guidelines 2017. Results: The cases were described according to their thyroid function tests. There were eleven (11) cases in which TSH value was more than 4.0 mIU/L. To rule out hypothyroid state we also do Ft4 for these cases whose results were normal. This interpretation identifies subclinical hypothyroid state in these cases. We did not perform ft4 for cases whose TSH was in normal range. The p-value < 0.5 was considered significant. Pearson correlation values were given in the Table-III. Conclusion: it has been concluded from the results that pregnant women are associated with subclinical hypothyroidism (TSH > 4.0 mIU/L and Free T4 within normal range) which requires proper assessment during pregnancy to avoid from any further risk.