Is Waist-height Ratio Associated with Thyroid Antibody Levels in Children with Obesity?

Özet

Objective: Obesity is known to affect thyroid function. Recently, waist-height ratio (WHtR) has been considered as a useful marker ofsubclinical hypothyroidism in obese cases, but its relation with thyroid autoimmunity still remains unclear. We evaluated the effect ofbody fat mass, WHtR, and metabolic parameters on thyroid autoantibody levels in children with obesity.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out with an obese [n=56, male/female (M/F): 29/26] and a healthy group (n=38, M/F:19/19). All subjects underwent anthropometric measurements, laboratory investigations for thyroid function tests, thyroid peroxidase(TPO-ab) and thyroglobulin-antibodies (Tg-ab), transaminases, blood glucose, insulin levels, and lipids after overnight fasting; homeostaticmodel assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was calculated for assessment of insulin resistance. Fat mass was estimated bymultiple frequency bioimpedance analysis in the obese group, which was further divided into two subgroups according to the median ofWHtR. All parameters were compared between the groups/subgroups.Results: In the obese group, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), free triiodothyronine, thyrotropin, TPO-ab, insulin, low densitylipoprotein-cholesterol, total cholesterol, alanine aminotransferase levels, and HOMA-IR were significantly higher than the controls group(p 0.6” subgroup (n=28), weight, BMI, fat mass, TPO-ab,Tg-ab, insulin and triglyceride levels were higher than WHtR ≤0.6 subgroup (p 0.6 are likely to have higher thyroid antibody levels, and Tg-ab levels have apositive correlation with WHtR, which reveals an association of central adiposity with thyroid autoantibody levels in these cases.