SUBCLINICAL HYPOTHYROIDISM AND ITS ASSOCIATED COMPLICATIONS IN TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS PATIENTS

This study assessed the relationship between subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) and its associated complications in type 2 diabetic (T2D) patients. We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on published literature extracted from PubMed/Medline, Google scholar, and Cochrane library. A random effect model meta-analysis was used to find the odd ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). The heterogeneity was assessed with I². Eggers test and funnel plot was used to assess publication bias. A total of 62 studies were included involving 36500 patients. The patients who suffered from type 2 diabetes mellitus were seen at increased risk of subclinical hypothyroidism (OR= 1.88, 95% CI= 1.33-2.66). Furthermore, SCH was also associated with increased complications in type 2 diabetic patients with an estimated (OR= 3.31, 95% CI= 1.56-7.02) for Diabetic nephropathy (DN). Although, complications like Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) were not seen at an increased risk in type 2 diabetic (T2D) patients as their estimate odd ratio with 95% CI came out to be (OR= 1.11, 95% CI= 0.62-2.00) for Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and (OR= 1.68, 95% CI= 0.95-2.97) for Cardiovascular diseases (CVD). The study shows that subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) and some of its associated complications, like Diabetic nephropathy (DN), is more prevalent in type 2 diabetic (T2D) patients.