Abstract
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.
Keywords
Kidney transplantation Thyroid Volume Thyroid hormone Goiter
Full Text
Full text is available in PDF