Sensory Neuropathy in Hypothyroidism: Electrophysiological and Clinical Findings

Peripheral neuropathy may be a manifestation of hypothyroidism which usually develops insidiously over a long period of time due to irregular taking of drugs or lack of thyroid hormone replacement. The present study was designed to observe the clinical and electro-physiological findings in hypothyroid patients in order to evaluate the neuromuscular dysfunction as well as sensory neuropathy. For this purpose, 70 subjects with the age range of 20 to 50 years of both sexes were included in the study. Among them, 40 hypothyroid patients were taken in study group (Group B) and 30aparently healthy subjects were taken as control (Group A). On the basis of their TSH levels, group B was further divided into group B1 with TSH <60 MIU /L or (less severe) and group B2 with TSH>60 MIU /L (severe group). The duration of the disease ranged from 6 months to 5 years. All the hypothyroid patients were selected from Thyroid Clinic, Center of Nuclear Medicine and Ultra sound, Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, Dhaka, during the period from January 2005 to December 2005. Healthy subjects were selected from personal contact. Most of the hypothyroid patients were under hormone replacement therapy. Diagnosis of hypothyroidism was done by serum levels of TT3, TT4 and the TSH. In this study, both TT3, TT4 levels were significantly (P<0.01) lower in hypothyroids in compariso