(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Even so-called normal levels of the thyroid hormone known as thyrotropin may be putting women at risk for heart disease.
New research out of Norway suggests women with increasing levels of the hormone, even when those levels fall within the normal range, may be more likely to experience an adverse cardiac event like a heart attack.
Investigators followed about 17,000 women and 8,000 men. During the study, 228 women and 183 men died of coronary heart disease. The vast majority of both groups -- 192 women and 182 men -- had thyrotropin levels within the clinical reference range and these levels were linked to coronary heart disease mortality. However, the finding was strong enough to be statistically significant only in the women.
"This study shows that coronary heart disease mortality increases in women with increasing levels of thyrotropin within the reference range," the authors were quoted as saying. "These results indicate that relatively low but clinically normal thyroid function may increase the risk of fatal coronary heart disease."
The investigators note other studies have associated thyrotropin levels with blood pressure, body mass index and cholesterol levels -- all factors that can lead to heart disease when they are elevated.
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SOURCE:
Archives of Internal Medicine, 2008;168:855-860
