Peripheral nerve conduction tests in patients with hypothyroidism and healthy volunteers: A comparative study

Background: The nervous system is the one of the most common sites get affected in patients with hypothyroidism and various tools have been developed for assessing it. Nerve conduction studies are one among them. Aims and Objectives: The aim and objective of this study were to compare the nerve conduction study in patients with hypothyroidism and healthy volunteers. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted at the PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, on 30 patients with hypothyroidism (cases) and 30 healthy volunteers (controls). The average age of the patients with hypothyroidism was 38.53 ± 5.92 years (mean ± standard deviation [SD]) and that of the volunteers was 37.10 ± 3.19 years (mean ± SD). After obtaining informed, written consent, the nerve conduction study of the median nerve and ulnar nerve of both the limbs were done for them. Results: A statistical analysis was carried out using independent Student’s t-test, which showed a statistically significant in median nerve conduction velocities (P < 0.001) and amplitude (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Results of this study showed that significant impairment was present in patients with hypothyroidism than in healthy volunteers, and it was more pronounced for median nerve than for ulnar.