The American Heart Association Rapid Access Journal Report recently stated that the risk of suddenly dying from cardiac problems is significantly higher among patients who have increased thyroid hormone levels.
This statistic remained true for patients who have higher than normal thyroid hormone levels, particularly compared to patients who have lower thyroid hormone levels.
The results from this study show that thyroid hormone levels may be a useful way to detect patients who are at risk for sudden cardiac death. Further research needs to be conducted before health experts could depend on this information with certainty.
“Currently, we do not have a good way to predict sudden cardiac death in the general population,” Dr. Layal Chaker, study lead author and research fellow in endocrinology and epidemiology at Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands, said. “Thus identifying additional risk factors is crucial. Our results indicate that thyroid hormone levels may be useful for assessing risk to prevent sudden cardiac death.”
Researchers also suggested that health care providers take extra care when they treat patients who have low thyroid hormones; over treating their thyroid levels could place them at higher risk for sudden cardiac death.
“We know that a considerable proportion of patients on thyroid hormone replacement therapy are over-treated and so have high blood levels of thyroid hormone,” Chaker said. “Our study suggests more caution is warranted in the treatment of thyroid hormone replacement. Replacement therapy is often aimed at the high normal range which carries a risk of overtreatment.”
