Prevalence of T3 toxicosis and FT4 toxicosis in Thyrotoxic Patients

ABSTRACT

Abstract Prevalence of  T3 toxicosis and FT4 toxicosis in Thyrotoxic Patients Natee            Munsakul          MD Swangjit       Suraamornkul  MD Petch            Rawdaree         MD, MSc (Epid), DLSHTM Endocrinology Unit, Department of Medicine, BMA Medical College and Vajira Hospital Objective:   To determine the prevalence of T3 toxicosis and  FT4 toxicosis in thyrotoxic patients. Study design:  Cross - sectional descriptive study. Subjects:  Two hundred and ninety five newly diagnosed thyrotoxic patients were studied from January 1999 to September 2000 in BMA Medical College and Vajira Hospital. Methods:All patients were diagnosed by endocrinologists based on thyroid function tests.  Age, sex, address, symptoms, signs, duration of symptoms before diagnosis, and thyroid function tests were recorded.  The prevalence and correlation factors were analyzed by using SPSS for Windows program. Main outcome measures: Prevalence of  T3 toxicosis and FT4 toxicosis, characteristic of the subjects such as age, sex, duration of symptoms before diagnosis. Results: From 295 subjects recruited, 19.3% were male and 80.7% were female.  The prevalence of T3 toxicosis and FT4 toxicosis were 2% and 3.4% respectively.  The diagnoses were Graves' disease 93.2%, toxic multinodular goiter 3.1%,   toxic adenoma 2.7%, thyroiditis 0.3% and molar pregnancy 0.7%.  Mean age of  T3 toxicosis group, FT4  toxicosis group and the group that increased both T3 and FT4 were 31.4 + 11.4, 41.5 + 16.5, and 39.3 + 13.5 year respectively that were no statistically significant difference (p = 0.38).   The duration of symptoms before diagnosis were 3.8 + 4.6, 2.4+2.8, and 2.9+2.8 months respectively that were no statistically significant difference (P= 0.79). Conclusion: The prevalence of T3 toxicosis and FT4 toxicosis in thyrotoxic patients were 2.0% and 3.4% respectively but there were no statistically significant difference. Key words   T3 toxicosis, FT4 toxicosis Vajira Med J 2001 ; 45 55 - 60