FREQUENCY OF THYROID-DYSFUNCTION IN DIABETIC-PATIENTS - VALUE OF ANNUAL SCREENING

A randomly selected group of 1310 adult diabetic patients attending a diabetic outpatient clinic received annual screening for thyroid disea se, by estimating serum free thyroxine and TSH concentrations. The ove rall prevalence of thyroid disease was found to be 13.4 %, and was hig hest (31.4 %) in Type 1 diabetic females, and lowest in Type 2 diabeti c males (6.9 %). As a direct result of screening, new thyroid disease was diagnosed in 6.8 % (89 patients) of the population screened; the c ommonest diagnosis was subclinical hypothyroidism (4.8 %), followed by hypothyroidism (0.9 %), hyperthyroidism 0.5 %), and subclinical hyper thyroidism (0.5 %). Female patients with Type 1 diabetes had the highe st annual risk of developing thyroid disease (12.3 %), but all patient groups had a higher incidence of thyroid dysfunction, compared to tha t reported in the general population. This study suggests that thyroid function should be screened annually in diabetic patients to detect a symptomatic thyroid dysfunction which is increased in frequency in a d iabetic population.