Correlation of thyroid-related hormones with vascular complications in type 2 diabetes patients with euthyroid

BackgroundThis study aimed to evaluate the relationship between thyroid-related hormones and vascular complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with euthyroidism. MethodsWe enrolled 849 patients with T2DM after screening out the ineligible. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between fT3, fT4, the fT3/fT4 ratio, thyroid-stimulating hormone, and diabetic vascular complications. Spearman correlation analysis was used to determine the correlation between thyroid-related hormones and vascular complications. ResultsIn this cross-sectional study of T2DM, 538 patients with carotid atherosclerosis (CA) and 299 patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). The prevalence of DPN was negatively correlated with fT3 and the fT3/fT4 ratio but positively correlated with fT4 (all P<0.01). At the same time, the odds ratio for DPN decreased with increasing fT3 (T1: reference; T2: OR: 0.689, 95%CI: 0.477, 0.993; T3: OR: 0.426, 95% CI: 0.286, 0.633, all P<0.05) and fT3/fT4 ratio (T1: reference; T2: OR: 0.528, 95% CI: 0.365, 0.763; T3: OR: 0.413, 95% CI: 0.278, 0.613, all P<0.001). In terms of sensitivity and specificity, fT4 was found to be 39.5% and 71.4% accurate, respectively, with a 95% CI of 0.531-0.611. ConclusionsWe found a negative correlation between fT3 and fT3/fT4 ratio and the number of individuals with DPN, and a positive correlation between fT4 and the prevalence of DPN.

Automated summary

This study found a negative correlation between thyroid-related hormones fT3 and fT3/fT4 ratio and the prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in T2DM patients, while fT4 was positively correlated with DPN prevalence.