12217 Exploring Thyroid-stimulating Hormone As A Potential Cardiovascular Disease Risk Marker In Euthyroid Individuals

Abstract Disclosure: A.P. Neto: None. H. Lucchesi: None. C.C. Silva Janovsky: None. I. Bensenor: None. L.S. Ward: None. L.L. Cunha: None. Previous studies have suggested that TSH levels may predict longevity primarily in elderly individuals. Aging is associated with a high prevalence of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases that reduce survival. However, the relationship between serum TSH levels and these conditions, especially traditional cardiovascular risk markers, remains poorly explored. We employed data from the longitudinal multicenter cohort study ELSA-Brasil, which includes workers from five Brazilian Universities, to evaluate thyroid function in 8,452 participants aged between 34 and 75 years, classified as euthyroid and followed for 8.9 ± 0.6 years. The participants were evaluated for the presence of diabetes, hypertension, angina, peripheral arterial disease, and cardiovascular mortality. Additionally, we measured cardiovascular markers, including global cardiovascular risk score, HbA1c, microalbuminuria (mg/dl), LDL levels, and triglyceride levels. Statistical analysis was used to compare TSH levels with clinically relevant outcomes and classical cardiovascular risk markers. We observed that higher TSH levels correlated negatively with global cardiovascular risk (Spearman rank -0.023, p-value=0.038), microalbuminuria (Spearman rank -0.055, p<0.000), and HbA1c (Spearman rank -0.041, p<0.000). However, TSH levels were positively correlated with hypertriglyceridemia (Spearman rank +0.125, p<0.000) but had no relationship with LDL (p >0.05). The appraisal of cardio-metabolic diseases showed that individuals without diabetes had higher TSH levels (1.79 mIU/L, IQR 1.07) than individuals with diabetes (1.71 mIU/L, IQR 1.07). Patients with arteriosclerosis diseases, such as coronary and peripheral arterial disease, had lower TSH levels (1.66, IQR 0.98 and 1.67, IQR 0.94, respectively) than those who did not have these comorbidities (1.79, IQR 1.07, and 1.79, IQR 1.07). Furthermore, TSH levels did not correlate with the incidence of hypertension (p >0.05). Finally, we divided the population into two groups: higher and lower TSH levels based on the median TSH levels (1.78 mIU/L, IQR 1.06). The Kaplan-Meier curve did not show a difference between these groups (p=0.758) in survival after cardiovascular events (08 events in total) during follow-up. In conclusion, our results suggest that higher serum TSH levels in euthyroid individuals are associated with a lower prevalence of metabolic and cardiovascular disease. However, the relatively short observation duration and low frequency of cardiovascular events in our cohort made it difficult to statistically analyze several endpoints, such as survival. Further investigation is necessary to completely understand whether TSH is a cardiovascular risk indicator. Presentation: 6/2/2024