Association between Serum Thyroid Stimulating Hormone and Free Thyroxine Levels and Urinary Albumin Excretion in Euthyroid Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background: The Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus are greatly impacted by diabetic nephropathy (DN), a major cause of end-stage renal disease (T2DM). Thyroid function, even in the euthyroid range, may have an impact on the development of DN, according to new research. Aim: This study aims to investigate the association between serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (fT4) levels with urinary albumin excretion in euthyroid subjects with T2DM. Methods: Fifteen euthyroid T2DM individuals were included in a cross-sectional investigation. Patient interviews, examinations of medical records, and laboratory tests to measure HbA1c, fT4, serum TSH, and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) were used in the data collection process. Using SPSS version 23.0, Pearson correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the associations between these variables. Results: The participants’ average age was 55.3 ± 8.2 years, and the male to female ratio was 9:6. Urinary ACR was 45.6 ± 22.4 mg/g, fT4 was 1.2 ± 0.2 ng/dL, and mean serum TSH was 2.3 ± 0.8 µIU/mL. Urinary albumin excretion and blood TSH levels were shown to be significantly positively correlated (r = 0.642, p = 0.009). Urinary albumin excretion and fT4 levels did not significantly correlate (r = -0.213, p = 0.456). Males had a higher correlation (r = 0.751, p = 0.021) than females (r = 0.528, p = 0.095) according to gender-based analysis. Conclusion: In euthyroid patients with type 2 diabetes, elevated urine albumin excretion is linked to higher serum TSH levels, indicating a possible connection between thyroid function and diabetic nephropathy. There was no discernible correlation between fT4 levels and excretion of albumin in the urine. Recommendations: To determine who is more likely to develop diabetic nephropathy, it is advised that patients with type 2 diabetes have their thyroid function regularly monitored. Larger sample sizes and additional research are required to confirm these results and investigate underlying mechanisms.