Assessment of Thyroid Function in Major Thalassemia Patients above 12 Year of Age

Thyroid dysfunctions in patients with beta-thalassemia are the result of iron toxicity to thyroid cells. The present study was conducted in 160 subjects divided into two groups -Group A comprised of 80 diagnosed cases of -thalassemia major above 12 years of age receiving regular blood transfusions for more than last 3 years and at least 10 transfusions in a year. Group B comprised of age and sex matched 80 healthy individuals. We found that prevalence of hypothyroidism in patients with beta-thalassemia major was 20 % patients, which was significantly (pless than0.0001) higher than the group B, in which prevalence of hypothyroidism was only 3.75 %.