ACTA ENDOCRINOLOGICA (BUC)

Context. Pakistan is considered to be severely iodine deficient with 70% population at risk of iodine deficiency. Objectives. This study was designed to determine the prevalence of goiter and status of iodine in district Charsadda, Pakistan. Design. The study was carried out using the 30 cluster approach. Subject and Methods. From each cluster, 40 school going children were randomly selected with equal number of male and female children making a total of 1210. A total of 202 pregnant women were sampled casually from different health units and hospitals of the districts. For goiter determination palpation, for urinary iodine wet digestion and for salt iodine rapid spot test kits were used. Results. The prevalence of goiter in school children was 10.9% (10.2% in boys and 11.5% in girls). In pregnant women the goiter prevalence was found to be 20.7% (16.6% in 1st trimester, 19% in 2nd trimester and 25% in 3rd trimester). The median urinary iodine concentration of school children and pregnant women was 89.9μg/L and 89.8μg/L respectively. Estimation of iodine content in salt illustrates that 70% households were consuming non-iodized salt. Conclusions. This study suggests mild iodine deficiency in the district Charsadda of Pakistan. Regular iodine prophylaxis is needed in the area.

recently. However, the nature of the signals that may connect body fat/muscle tissues with the central nervous system governing energy homeostasis remains to be elucidated. Objective. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of peripheral kisspeptin-10 administration on irisin release in human males. Subjects and methods. Kisspeptin-10 was administered to normal weight (n=8) and obese (n=8) men. Sequential blood sampling was performed for 30 minutes pre and 210 minutes post kisspeptin injection at 30 minutes interval. ELISA kit was used to detect plasma irisin levels. Results. There is a significant (P<0.0001) effect of Kisspeptin-10 administration on irisin release in both normal weight and obese participants. Mean irisin levels (96.24 ± 1.351 ng/mL) at 210 minutes were significantly (P<0.0001) enhanced as compared to pre-kisspeptin (59.18 ± 4.815 ng/ mL) in normal weight subjects. In obese subjects mean irisin levels (75.76 ± 4.06 ng/mL) were significantly (P<0.0001) elevated at 180 minutes post-kisspeptin when compared with pre-kisspeptin irisin levels (41.28 ± 2.89 ng/mL). Conclusion. Our findings suggest that kisspeptin may have a novel therapeutic potential to induce irisin release in humans which may have anti-obesity effects.

Objective. To find out the relationship of thyroid hormone profile of females with outcomes after intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Method. It was a cross sectional study conducted in Islamabad Clinic Serving Infertile Couple from June 2013 till August 2015. T3 (triiodo thyronine), T4 (thyroxine) and TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) of 168 consented females was estimated after they underwent the first step of treatment protocol (ovarian down regulation) for ICSI. Pregnant group had ß hCG result more than 25 IU/mL while the rest were included in the non-pregnant group. Both groups were compared by using independent sample t-test. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to associate T3 and T4 with other pregnancy variables with their significance. Results. Non pregnant women had significantly higher mean values for T3 and T4 as compared to pregnant women (p <0.05, p<0.01). Difference in mean TSH value between non-pregnant and pregnant women was not significant p=0.08. It was found that T4 gave significant negative association with grading of embryo-I, blastocysts formed, thickness of endometrium and number of gestational sacs. Conclusion. Disturbance in thyroid profile with raised T4 levels leads to alteration in endometrial thickness and quality of embryos required for implantation and hence conception.