Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate the association between thyroid disease and severity of motor symptoms in Croatian residents with de novo PD.

Background: We demonstrated in our prior study that hypothyroidism and thyroiditis are more prevalent in Parkinson’s disease (PD) than in control group.

Method: This study comprised a total of 222 de novo PD patients, 121 women and 101 men (with mean age of 67,76), among whom 70 subjects (31,5%) also had thyroid disease (55 levothyroxin-treated.hypothyroidism, 54 thyroiditis, 7 hyperthyroidism, 2 subclinical hypothyroidism and 1 subclinical hyperthyroidism), 46 women and 24 men (with mean age of 69,2 years). Control group consisted of 152 PD patients without thyroid problems. Clinical severity of motor symptoms were assessed by Unified Parkinson’s disease rating scale part III (UPDRS-III).

Results: Thyroid disturbance did not exhibited significantly higher scores for motor symptoms assessed by UPDRS-III in de novo PD patients compared with the non-thyroid disease-PD group (mean UPDRS-score 35,63 vs. 34,14).

Conclusion: demonstrated that neither levothyroxine-treated-hypothyroidism, thyroiditis nor hyperthyroidism had an impact on the higher score for motor symptoms in de novo PD patients. Although thyroid disease may be associated with impaired regulation of TSH and thyroid hormones levels, and thyroiditis-associated-antibodies could lead to a local immune complex-mediated inflammatory reaction in the brain inducing neuronal tissue damage, it seems that thyroid disturbances do not more affect the severity of motor symptoms in de novo PD patients than other etiopathogenetic factors. Further studies are needed to examine this impact.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/the-impact-of-thyroid-disease-on-severity-of-motor-symptoms-in-croatian-residents-with-de-novo-parkinsons-disease/