Assessment of Plasma Homocysteine in Patients with Hypothyroidism in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital

Introduction: Hypothyroidism, a risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease has been seen to be associated with hyperhomocysteinemia. The plasma levels of homocysteine and its relationship with hypothyroidism was assessed. Material and Methods: A total of 120 patients aged 20 – 60 years comprising of 60 hypothyroid and 60 euthyroid controls were assessed for the study. Evaluation of plasma homocystein was done using human homocysteine ELISA my BioSource. FT3, FT4 and TSH were also evaluated by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique using stat fax-2100. Result: In our study, we have found the values of FT3 in the subjects as 1.21+ 0.89pg/ml lower than controls values of 1.92+0.66pg/ml, values of FT4 in subjects as 0.60+0.53ng/dl as compared to control group value of 1.40+0.30ng/dl, values of TSH as 2.07+1.19µiU/ml higher than the control group of 0.48+1.67µiU/ml. The mean values of plasma homocysteine (Hcy) for subjects was 34.50+10.01µmol/L higher than the control group with 9.30+2.11µmol/L. Conclusion: Our study findings suggest that patients with hypothyroidism also have a high plasma homocysteine known to pose cardiovascular complications.