Open Access Maced J Med Sci electronic publication ahead of print,
published on March 19, 2017 as https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2017.029
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Open Access Maced J Med Sci. 1
ID Design 2012/DOOEL Skopje, Republic of Macedonia
Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences.
https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2017.029
eISSN: 1857-9655
Basic Science
No Association between 25 (OH) Vitamin D Level And
Hypothyroidism among Females
Imad R. Musa
1
, Gasim I. Gasim
2*
, Sajjad Khan
3
, Ibrahim A. Ibrahim
4
, Hamdi Abo-alazm
4
, Ishag Adam
5
1
Armed Forces Hospital at King Abdu Aziz Air Base, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia;
2
Alneelain School of Medicine, Alneelain
University, Khartoum, Sudan;
3
Central Hospital, Arar, Saudi Arabia;
4
Medical Laboratory Science, United Medical
Laboratory, Saudi Arabia;
5
Faculty of Medicine, Khartoum University, Khartoum, Sudan
Citation: Musa IR, Gasim GI, Khan S, Ibrahim IA, Abo-
alazm H, Adam I. No Association between 25 (OH)
Vitamin D Level And Hypothyroidism among Females.
Open Access Maced J Med Sci.
https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2017.029
Keywords: hypothyroidism; vitamin D levels; females.
*Correspondence: Gasim I. Gasim. Alneelain School of
Medicine, Alneelain University, Khartoum, Sudan. E-mail:
gasimgsm@yahoo.com
Received: 26-Nov-2016; Revised: 16-Jan-2017;
Accepted: 09-Feb-2017; Online first: 19-Mar-2017
Copyright: © 2017 Imad R. Musa, Gasim I. Gasim,
Sajjad Khan, Ibrahim A. Ibrahim, Hamdi Abo-alazm, Ishag
Adam. This is an open-access article distributed under the
terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC
4.0).
Funding: This research did not receive any financial
support.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no
competing interests exist.
Abstract
AIM: The aim was to investigate serum vitamin D (25-OH) level among females with
hypothyroidism.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A case-control study (58 in each arm) was conducted in Arar
Central Hospital, Kingdom Saudi Arabia. The cases were females with hypothyroidism, and healthy
females were controls. TSH, thyroid hormones: Free T3 (FT3) and Free T4 (FT4) and haemoglobin
levels were measured in all participants. Serum vitamin D (25-OH) level was measured using the
spectrophotometry.
RESULTS: While there was no significant difference in the age and haemoglobin level, body mass
index (BMI) was significantly higher in the cases. Compared with the controls, cases had
significantly higher TSH, had significantly lower T4, and there was no significant difference in FT3
and 25 (OH) vitamin D, [16.1 (8.8-26.7) vs. 14.0 (9.5-20.3 ng/ml; P = 0.577]. Linear regression
showed no association between, age, BMI, haemoglobin, TSH, FT3, FT4 and the log of 25 (OH)
vitamin D levels.
CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference in vitamin D level among females with
hypothyroidism and healthy controls.
Introduction
Vitamin D deficiency is a global health
problem where over a billion people worldwide have
some vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency [1, 2]. The
essential biological action of vitamin D is the
regulation of calcium and phosphorus metabolism.
Though the role of vitamin D in the regulation of
immune system has recently been reported [3, 4].
Hypothyroidism is a common disease in the general
population, most of which results as consequences of
Hashimoto's thyroiditis with a tendency to increase
with age and female are at 8 to 15 times at higher risk
than men [5]. It has been observed that serum Vitamin
D3 metabolites are elevated in hypothyroid subjects
[6].
However, a reduced level has been reported
in a patient with over-active thyroid gland [7]. Thyroid
disorders may affect vitamin D status as subnormal
levels of vitamin D were observed in a patient with
Graves' disease [8]. The role of vitamin D is explored
as an anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative factor and
association with many clinical disorders [9, 10].
Vitamin D has a direct and indirect role in inhibiting
the production of cytokines (IL-12 and IFN-c), hence,
enhances the immune and anti-inflammatory
responses [11].
Vitamin D is circulating in the blood attached
to a D-binding protein. Then hydroxylation takes place
at the liver and the kidneys to produce 25(OH) D and
the active metabolite, 1, 25 dihydroxy vitamin D (1,
25-(OH) 2 D) respectively [12]. The active form of
vitamin D is called calcitriol or 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin
D3. Serum 25(OH) D is used to reflect vitamin D
status because it is the major circulating precursor of
active vitamin D and has a half-life, ranging from two
to three weeks.
Interestingly, 1, 25-(OH) vitamin D has a short
circulating half-life and is tightly under the influence of