A comparative study on thyroid function in alzheimer's disease: results from a Turkish multi-centre study

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease is a very severe degenerative disease that affects brain function. Neuronal loss, accumulation of extracellular amyloid beta containing plaques and accumulation of intracellular (tau) neurofibrillary tangles are the hallmarks of this disease. We aim to investigate serum thyroid function tests in Alzheimer's disease, in addition to other dementias, and geriatric Turkish patients. We evaluated patients from Ankara, Dokuz Eylul, Cukurova University Hospitals. 357 female and male geriatric subjects were enrolled. All the cases were selected from three different geographical regions irrespective of sex and socioeconomic status. In this study, we evaluated the results of thyroid functions in Alzheimer disease patients as well as in other dementias and geriatric patients. In patients from Ankara, Central Anatolia region, no significant difference between groups regarding the routine control of biochemical parameters was observed. However, thyroid function results revealed that hypothyroidism in Alzheimer's disease patients from Mediterranean region, Adana and Aegean region, Izmir is a recurrent medical condition and is often an embedded side of the normal aging process. We concluded that currently, routine thyroid functions tests should be a part of all geriatric patients for screening presymptomatic Alzheimer's disease. There might be an interplay between reduced thyroid function and Alzheimer's disease that could be exploited for diagnostic purposes.