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High serum TSH linked to systolic, diastolic BP in children, adolescents
Ittermann T. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011;doi:10.1210/jc.2011-2768.
Serum thyroid-stimulating hormone levels are positively related to hypertension in children and adolescents. According to researchers, this association suggests that subclinical hypothyroidism is associated with an increased risk for hypertension.
Data from the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents, which included 6,435 children aged 3 to 10 years and 5,918 adolescents aged 11 to 17 years, were examined. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures were read in a sitting position after 5 minutes of rest. Using age-, sex- and height-specific reference values from the study, researchers defined hypertension as an increased systolic or an increased diastolic BP. Electrochemiluminescence was used to measure serum TSH; high and low levels were defined based on age-specific reference limits. TSH levels — both continuous and categorized serum — were associated with hypertension by multivariate logistic regression.
There was a significant association between serum TSH and hypertension in children (OR=1.12; 95% CI, 1.00-1.25) and adolescents (OR=1.19; 95% CI, 1.12-1.26). Increased TSH was significantly associated with continuous values of systolic and diastolic BP in both children and adolescents (P<.05). In addition, compared with euthyroid children, those with increased serum TSH had significantly lower pulse pressures and a higher risk for hypertension. Low serum TSH was not associated with BP-related variables.
“Answers about the clinical importance of the detected associations should be further derived from longitudinal epidemiological studies and double blinded randomized controlled trials,” the researchers wrote.
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