Evaluation of Thyroid Activity in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis

Abstract Background: Liver cirrhosis is increasingly becoming a public health problem. The aim of study is to evaluate the relationship levels thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), triiodothyronine (T3), free thyroxine (fT4) and and liver cirrhosis(LC) severity, measured by Child-Pugh (CP) and MELD scores. Methods: 419 patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis were included in the study. Biological tests for TSH, T3, fT4 on admission and discharge were used. All analysis was performed using, One-Sample Wilcoxon test and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: The mean values for TSH were statistically significant higher compared to normal values only at admission (p<.05), and the mean values for T3 were statistically significant lower both on admission (p<.001) and on discharge (p<.001). No effect was observed for fT4. TSH on the admission and discharge moments were statistically significant differences (p<.001), T3 (p<.001) and fT4 (p<.004). The CP also influenced the hormone's values for TSH at admission (p<.01 and discharge (p<.001), and T3 at admission (p<.001) and discharge (p<.001) but not for fT4. For MELD score, a low power positive associations were observed only with TSH, on admission and discharge and negative associations with F3, in both situations. Conclusions: Elevated TSH levels at admission, coupled with their negative correlation with the CP score and differences between TSH-CP group C and groups A and B, highlighting the necessity for vigilant endocrine monitoring in hepatic patients. Also, admission T3 levels are lower than normal and negatively correlate with cirrhosis severity and MELD scores underscore potential clinical utility of monitoring thyroid function in assessing disease progression and improving patient survival outcomes.