Determination of age and sex specific TSH and FT4 reference limits in overweight and obese individuals in an iodine-replete region: Tehran Thyroid Study (TTS)

ABSTRACT

Introduction: To determine age and sex-specific thyrotropin (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) reference ranges according to body mass index (BMI) categories.

Methods: With regards to the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (NACB) criteria, a total of 2818 individuals from the Tehran Thyroid Study population was selected and categorized in three BMI groups.

Results: TSH levels did not differ significantly between BMI groups (p = .054). Females had statistically higher TSH levels than males in all BMI categories (p < .001). According to age-specific analyses, the youngest category (20–29 years) had the highest median values of serum TSH in all BMI groups. With increasing BMI, the 2.5^th percentile of TSH remained approximately unchanged and the 97.5^th percentile showed an increasing pattern. FT4 level was significantly higher in the normal weight group compared to obese individuals (p < .001); females had significantly lower FT4 levels than males in normal weight and obese groups (p < .001). According to age categories, the youngest group (20–29 years) had higher levels of FT4 than the elderly group in all BMI categories. A decreasing pattern in both 2.5^th and 97.5^th percentiles of FT4 was observed along with increasing BMI.

Conclusions: Compared to the normal weight population, obese individuals have slightly lower FT4 concentrations accompanied by similar TSH levels. With increasing BMI, upper limits of TSH and FT4 show increasing and decreasing patterns, respectively.

KEYWORDS:

• Thyroid
• thyrotropin
• thyroxine
• body mass index
• obesity
• reference range

Competing Interests

All authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Author Contributions

B.F. and H.A. wrote the manuscript. S.G. analyzed data. A.A., L.M., M.T., and F.A. reviewed/edited the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

There is no funding.