Thyroid hormone levels and structural parameters of thyroid homeostasis are correlated with motor subtype and disease severity in euthyroid patients with Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

Purpose: This study is to investigate the relationship between thyroid function and Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Materials and Methods: Totally 77 PD patients were included, who were divided into tremor-dominant-type (TDT), akinetic-rigid-type (ART) and mixed-type (MXT) subgroups. Parkinsonism severity and stage was assessed by modified H-Y stage. Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), fT3 and fT4 levels were detected to analyze thyroid function. Parameters of thyroid homeostasis, including thyroid’s secretory capacity (SPINA-GT), the total deiodinase activity (SPINA-GD) and Jostel’s TSH index and the thyrotroph thyroid hormone sensitivity index (TTSI), were calculated and compared.

Results: Thyroid hormone levels in PD patients were lower than normal controls. Patients with TDT/MXT had significantly higher fT4 level than those with ART. TSH levels were 1.73 ± 0.93 and 2.06 ± 1.04 ulU/ml for patients with TDT/MXT and ART, respectively. The patients in the TDT/MXT group had significantly lower SPINA-GD while significantly higher SPINA-GT than ART group. The fT3 level was significantly higher in early group than advanced group. TSH index in the early group was significantly higher than the advanced group. The fT4 level was negatively correlated with UPDRS motor score. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated that fT4 was positively correlated with PD motor subtype, which disappeared after adjusting for confounding factors. The fT3 level was negatively correlated with PD disease severity, even after adjusting for confounding factors. In female PD patients, fT4 level in TDT/MXT group was significantly higher than ART group. Male PD patients had higher fT4 levels in early patients than advanced patients. Percentage of patients exhibiting ART was decreased significantly in higher fT4 level subgroups. With the increase of TSH index and TTSI, the proportion of advanced PD patients gradually decreased. The proportion of PD patients with TDT/MXT motor subtype gradually increased with the quartiles of SPINA-GT.

Conclusion: Thyroid hormone levels and structural parameters of thyroid homeostasis are correlated with motor subtype and disease severity in euthyroid patients with PD.

Keywords:

• Thyroid hormone
• thyroid homeostasis
• SPINA-GT
• SPINA-GD
• TTSI
• TSH index
• motor subtype
• disease severity
• Parkinson’s disease (PD)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Shandong Provincial Natural Foundation (No. ZR ZR2019PH017), the Science and Technology Project of Jinan City (No. 201805073), and the Project Funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2017M622217).