Neuromuscular symptoms and dysfunction in subclinical hypothyroid patients: beneficial effect of L‐T₄ replacement therapy

Abstract

Neuromuscular symptoms and dysfunction are rather common in subclinical hypothyroidism, and may be associated with abnormalities in serum calcium balance and surface electromyography. The ability of L-T4 treatment to reverse all these changes suggests that subclinical hypothyroidism patients may require early therapy not only to prevent progression to frank hypothyroidism, but also to improve their neuromuscular dysfunction.

Effects of subclinical hypothyroidism treatment on psychiatric symptoms, muscular complaints, and quality of life

“…Some authors have described grea ter frequency of neuromuscular symptoms or muscle dysfunction on electromyography in sHT patients (7,9,11,15). Proximal muscle strength seems to be impaired in sHT, and our group previously published a cross-sectional study in which there was greater prevalence of neuromuscular complaints and altered muscle strength in sHT compared with a control group (11).…”

“…Although some transversal studies showed greater prevalence of neuromuscular abnormalities in sHT (7,9,11,15), little has been published about the effect of L-T4 substitution on them. To our knowledge, there is no double-blind placebo-controlled trial that evaluated muscle function until the present moment.…”

“…There are very few studies that evaluated muscular function in sHT (7,9,11,15), and none included clinical signs and symptoms, psychiatric complaints, and health status in the same study. We believed that some psychological aspects of thyroid hypofunction, when present in sHT, may be influenced by physical findings, as suggested by the association between physical aspects of quality of life, in the SF-36 evaluation, and muscular function, specially IS, in the present study.…”

Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of Hypothyroidism in a Population Undergoing Maintenance Hemodialysis

“…Third, certain neurobehavioral and neuromuscular dysfunctions are also associated with hypothyroidism, e.g. depression, memory loss, cognitive impairment and peripheral nerve dysfunction [28][29][30]. The prevalence of depression in dialysis patients is high [31], and hypothyroidism can contribute to its development.…”

Subclinical hypothyroidism: Comparison of adhesion molecule levels before and after levothyroxine therapy

“…neurological and psychiatric or psychological, and coagulopathies. 10,[12][13][14][15] Atherosclerosis is a chronic process involving both cellular and humoral responses. In atherogenesis, leucocytes are involved in the early phase of atherosclerosis and maintain their activity during plaque formation, during which time sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 first co-ordinate leucocyte adhesion, then their transendothelial migration.…”