The predictive value of thyroid hormone levels on the neurological outcomes of patients with acute ischemic stroke

<p><strong>Objective</strong> To explore the correlation between thyroid hormone levels in patients with acute ischemic stroke and the severity of disease and short-term prognosis. <strong>Methods</strong> According to the level of serum total triiodothyronine (TT₃), 98 patients who presented first acute ischemic stroke and without history of thyroid abnormality were divided into low TT₃ group and normal TT₃ group. Thyroid hormone levels and neurological function defect of those patients were tested, and their neural functional recovery after 3 months was evaluated. <strong>Results</strong> Low TT₃ group had more severe neural function defect compared to normal TT₃ group (<em>χ²</em> = 58.134, <em>P</em> = 0.000). There were no significant differences on total thyroxine (TT₄;<em> t</em> = 1.636, <em>P</em> = 0.105) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH;<em> t</em> = 1.059, <em>P</em> = 0.292) between 2 groups. There was a significantly negative correlation between TT₃ levels and National Insititute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score on admission (<em>r</em> = -0.672, <em>P</em> = 0.000). Patients with low TT₃ showed a significantly smaller percentage of neurological function improvement on both NIHSS ( <em>χ²</em> = 8.993, <em>P </em>= 0.003) and modified Rankin Scale (mRS; <em>χ²</em> = 6.247, <em>P</em> = 0.012) scores compared to those with normal TT₃ at 90 d after onset. <strong>Conclusions</strong> Low T₃ level is associated with the severity of acute ischemic stroke and neural functional recovery, suggesting serum T₃level may be a predictor of neural function improvement in patients with acute ischemic stroke.</p><p> </p><p><strong>DOI: </strong>10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2015.02.009