April - June 2012, Volume 8, Issue 2

Pejovic M, Bogavac-Stanojevic N, Popovic D, Kavaric S, Stojanov M

A Pilot Study of Thyroid Testing in Montenegro

Acta Endo (Buc) 2012, 8 (2): 309-319
doi: 10.4183/aeb.2012.309

Context. There is a lack of evidence on thyroid hormonal status and the prevalence of thyroid autoimmune diseases\r\nin Montenegro.\r\nObjective. In order to get an idea about that we performed thyroid function tests on ambulatory patients from different\r\nareas of Montenegro.\r\nDesign. The study took place since November 2005 till March 2007 at the Clinical Center of Montenegro.\r\nSubjects and methods. The study included 277 subjects of both sexes, referred for serum thyroid-stimulating hormone\r\n(TSH), thyroxin (T4) and free thyroxin (FT4), thyroperoxidase antibody (TPOAb) and thyroglobulin antibody (TgAb). Also a multi-step statistical analysis of the\r\nbiochemical data was performed.\r\nResults. An age-dependent increment in serum TSH was detected in both males (p = 0.001) and females (p = 0.034). In females significant changes of T4 with age were detected (p = 0.017), but not in males (p = 0.427). Neither in males nor in females changes in FT4 were found (p = 0.342 and p\r\n= 0.831, respectively). A univariate logistic model demonstrated an association between thyroid antibodies and TSH, indicating that TSH ≥ 7.15 mU/L was a better predictor of TPOAb (p = 0.001) than of TgAb (p = 0.01) presence . A multivariate model adjusted for both age and gender gave similar results. The highest TSH increment (86%) was\r\nfound in sera containing both antibodies, while 33% of antibodies negative persons had TSH above 7.16 mU/L.\r\nConclusion. The results demonstrate high percentage of subclinical thyroiditis among the investigated subjects.

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Correspondence: Danica Popovic, Ph.D. , ?Codra?Special Hospital for Surgery , Podgorica, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montenegro, Podgorica,\r\nMontenegro, Fax:+382 20 648969, email: midpopovic@t-com.me.