Abstract

STUDY OF THYROID FUNCTION TESTS IN AGING MEN OF RURAL AND URBAN AREAS OF JAMMU REGION

Ravinder Kumar Malhotra*, Anjali Nadir Bhat and Anil Sharma

Abstract

Aging is the progressive universal decline, first in functional reserve and then in function that occurs in organisms over time. It is heterogeneous and varies widely in different individuals and in different organs within a particular individual. The two most important clinical changes in endocrine activity during aging involve the pancreas and the thyroid gland. There may be impaired glucose tolerance or diabetes mellitus. Several changes in thyroid functions occur during aging. Normal aging is associated with changes in thyroid hormone production and metabolism. This results in an increased prevalence of subclinical thyroid disease in the elderly. In general subclinical thyroid disease is associated with an increased risk of overt thyroid dysfunction and different negative clinical parameters. The present study was undertaken to study the rural-urban difference in the thyroid function tests in healthy aging men of Jammu. The present prospective, one-year study was conducted on 100 healthy male subjects aged 50 years and above each from urban and rural areas of Jammu region. Subjects with any thyroid disorder or intake of drugs known to affect thyroid function, persons with chronic illness such as renal failure, malignant neoplasm, hepatic cirrhosis and diabetes mellitus were excluded from the study. In the present study, the mean T3 value was found to increase slightly in age group D both in rural and urban subjects but the difference in the mean values was statistically insignificant. the mean T4 values were within normal range for laboratory, in all the age groups both in rural as well as urban subjects. The difference in the mean values of T4 in all age groups among rural and urban subjects was also statistically non-significant and the difference in the mean values of TSH in all the age groups among rural and urban subjects was statistically non significant.

Keywords: Thyroid functions, Age, Thyroid hormone, Serum T3, Serum T4, Serum TSH.