Investigating hypothyroidism in beta thalassemia patients receiving blood and determining its relationship with iron overload and iron removal treatment

Blood transfusion in thalassemia patients has side effects such as endocrine iron overload. It is necessary to use iron chelators. The aim is to investigate the prevalence of hypothyroidism and its relationship with the level of iron overload and the results of the heart and liver MRI as a new method for diagnosing iron deposition, and iron removal treatment. Determining the factors affecting this complication can help prevent or improve it.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 232 beta-thalassemia major and intermedia patients of Tehran adult thalassemia clinic in the year 1400 who were selected by convenient sampling method. The comparison of the level of thyroid hormones and ferritin was done with Chi-squared, independent t, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests by SPSS 26.

The prevalence of hypothyroidism in patients with an average age of 40.79 ± 9.02 year was 27.6% There was no significant relationship between hypothyroidism with ferritin levels or heart and liver iron deposition. TSH level was significantly (p= 0.01) higher in men than women. Most of patients used combined iron chelators, but the type of drug was not significantly different.

It seems that iron overload may be effective in hypothyroidism, but it does not necessarily lead to it. Despite the treatment of iron deficiency, this complication is still one of the main problems. It is suggested to consider the amount of iron load and iron removal treatment before and after the onset of hypothyroidism in future studies.