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

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