Study of Thyroid Disorders in Patients of Stroke

To study the prevalence of thyroid disorders among patients of ischemic stroke and to correlate it with the severity of stroke on basis of NIHSS score and functional outcome after 3 months on basis of modified Rankin Scale (mRS).1 Method: This hospital based descriptive, randomized, single blinded, analytical study was done in the department of Medicine, SRIMSR hospital, Raipur from September 2023 to Dec2024. A total of 82 patients above 18 years of age who had ischemic stroke were included. Every patient was subjected to detailed clinical history and neurological examination. Two neurological scores, namely NIHSS (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale) and modified Rankin Scale (mRS) was used. The severity distribution of NIHSS score on admission was divided into 3 categories, mild: NIHSS <8; moderate: 8-14; severe: >14. Neurological impairment and improvement were assessed using NIHSS, together with modified Rankin Scale (mRS)[1,2] from follow up OPD visits. Favorable outcome is defined as mRS<2[3]. The first OPD follow up usually occurs 2-4 weeks after discharge from hospital and we have assessed clinically after 3 months of discharge. Basic and clinical characteristics including demographic data such as sex, age, concurrent illness, medication was collected and categorized. We have divided patients into 5 group on the basis of serum free T3 (FT3), free T4 (FT4) and TSH; NTIS, Euthyroid, Hyperthyroid, Overt hypothyroid & Subclinical hypothyroid (SCH) [4]. Results: Among 82 patients with available laboratory data and relatively complete neurological impairment documentations met all inclusion criteria, 59 men and 23 women. Patients with subclinical hypothyroid had significantly mild neurological impairment at presentation on basis of NIHSS score (P = < .05) and have good functional outcome on follow up after 3 months on basis of mRS score. Conclusion: on the basis of this study it can be concluded that ischemic stroke patients with subclinical hypothyroid (SCH) at presentation has less stroke severity and these group of patients have better functional outcome at 3 months of follow up but further studies with large sample size are needed to validate our findings. Keywords: Thyroid disorder, stroke, cerebrovascular accident, modified Rankin Scale (mRS), National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS)