Diagnosis of subclinical central hypothyroidism in patients with hypothalamic–pituitary disease by Doppler echocardiography

Abstract

ObjectiveThe diagnosis of subclinical central hypothyroidism in hypothalamic–pituitary patients cannot be established by serum markers of thyroid hormone action. Myocardial function by echocardiography has been shown to reflect thyroid hormone action in primary thyroid dysfunction. We evaluated the performance of echocardiography in diagnosing subclinical central hypothyroidism.DesignCross-sectional and before and after.MethodsEchocardiography and serum thyroid hormones were assessed in overt primary (n=20) and central (n=10) hypothyroidism, subclinical primary hypothyroidism (n=10), hypothalamic–pituitary disease with normal free thyroxine (FT4; n=25), and controls (n=28). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated using overt hypothyroidism patients and selected cut-off values were applied to detect both primary and central subclinical hypothyroidism. After levothyroxine (l-T4) intervention, patients were echocardiographically reevaluated at predefined targets: normal thyrotropin (TSH) in primary hypothyroidism, normal FT4 in overt central hypothyroidism, and higher than pretreatment FT4 in echo-defined subclinical central hypothyroidism.ResultsParameters with highest areas under the ROC curves (area under the curve (AUC) ≥0.94) were as follows: isovolumic contraction time (ICT), ICT/ejection time (ET), and myocardial performance index. Highest diagnostic accuracy (93%) was obtained when at least one parameter was increased (positive and negative predictive values: 93%). Hypothyroidism was echocardiographically diagnosed in eight of ten patients with subclinical primary hypothyroidism and in 14 of 25 patients (56%) with hypothalamic–pituitary disease and normal serum FT4. Echocardiographic abnormalities improved significantly after l-T4 and correlated (0.05<P<0.001) with changes in FT4 (−0.62<r<−0.55) and TSH (0.63<r<0.68) in primary hypothyroidism and with FT4 in central hypothyroidism (−0.72<r<−0.50).ConclusionEchocardiography can be useful in diagnosing subclinical central hypothyroidism in patients with hypothalamic–pituitary disease.