Thyroid Function and Volume Changes in Patients with End Stage Renal Disease, Before and After Kidney Transplantation

Disturbances of thyroid hormones metabolism and morphology are common in ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) but data available shows discrepancies re-garding the post transplantation status of kidney re-cipients . The aim of this study was to assess thyroid function and morphology after kidney transplanta-tion surgery. Materials and Methods: Thirty-two kidney recepient patients, without previous history of thyroid disor-ders, were enrolled. Serum levels of creatinine TT3, TT4, RT3U, TSH and thyroid staging were obtained and echogenicity were determined by ultrasonogra-phy one week before and 1, 3 and 6 months after kidney transplant surgery. Results: Thirty-two patients (22 males, 10 females) with mean±SD of age 38.2±12.6 years were evalu-ated. TT3, TT4 and RT3U levels significantly in-creased by improvement of graft function (p< 0.05) but in 7 patients with delayed graft function those values remained at lower levels. No cases with hy-perthyroidism or hypothyroidism were detected. Thyroid volume decreased and echogenicity in-creased after transplantation (p<0.05). Six patients had thyroid nodules and cysts before surgery and 2 new cysts were detected after surgery. There was no relationship between age, sex, type and duration of dialysis and thyroid function after transplantation. Conclusion: This study reveals a clear correlation be-tween thyroid function and morphology (volume and echogenicity) and improvement of kidney func-tion after transplantation; long-term follow-up is however required for evaluation of occurrence of thyroid nodules and malignancies following trans-plantation.