Abstract
Objectives:
Thyroid hormone deficiency is known to have many systemic effects on the human body. Although some of these manifestations are very well known, its effect on nasal functions has not been studied thoroughly. In this paper, evaluation of nasal functions in hypothyroid patients was performed, and their subsequent response to thyroid hormone replacement was prospectively studied.
Methods:
Prospective evaluation of nasal functions and concurrent determination of serum thyroid status was executed in a cohort of post-operative total thyroidectomy patients prior to and following thyroid hormone replacement therapy. Nasal function parameters, including nasalance, nasal resistance, mucociliary transport, and olfaction, are compared before and after treatment using paired samples t-test.
Results:
Twenty-four post-thyroidectomy patients (15 female, 9 male; mean age 34.96±12.47) were included in the study. All subjects were hypothyroid (mean TSH 129.2±64.46 mIU/L) prior to replacement. Following hormone therapy, their mean TSH dropped to 1.58±0.88 mIU/L. Nasalance showed a significant increase from 45.67±8.41 to 49.63±9.26 (p=0.0069) after replacement. Change in total nasal resistance from 0.28±0.16 Pa/cm3/s to 0.29±0.13 Pa/cm3/s was non-significant (P = 0.7747). Mucociliary transport time decreased significantly from 9.62±4.00 min to 5.70±2.07 min after replacement (P < 0.0001). Olfaction was measured by a visual analog scale (VAS) and Brief Smell Identification Test (B-SIT). VAS showed a significant improvement from 7.12±2.30 to 8.66±0.96 (P < 0.0001), and B-SIT also revealed a significant improvement from 35.08±31.34 to 80.17±23.52 (P < 0.0001) after replacement.
Conclusions:
Thyroid hormone replacement therapy following total thyroidectomy has a measurable impact on nasalance, mucociliary transport, and olfaction in hypothyroid patients.
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