Relationship Between TSH Level and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Overweight and Obese Adolescents

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between TSH levels and cardiometabolic risk factors in overweight/obese adolescents by gender. Methods: We performed a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of the data from 343 overweight/obese adolescents aged between 11 and 18 years. The degree of obesity was calculated as the body mass index standard deviation score (BMI-SDS). Hypertension, dyslipidaemia, hyperinsulinaemia, hyperglycaemia and insulin resistance were defined as cardiometabolic risk factors. The patients' TSH and free T4 levels were recorded, and the subjects with normal free T4 levels were included. Findings: A positive correlation was found between TSH level and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), insulin and triglyceride levels (p=0.001, 0.001, 0.006, respectively). In the linear regression analysis, in which age, gender and BMI-SDS values were taken as covariates, a 10% increase in the geometric mean of TSH was associated with a 0.13 fold increase in HOMA-IR, and a 10% increase in TSH level was associated with a onefold increase in geometric mean of insulin level (p=0.003, 0.002, respectively), but the relationship between TSH and triglyceride levels disappeared. Conclusions: TSH levels were found to be related to the glucose metabolism. Further prospective studies are needed to clarify the mechanism of this relationship.