Research shows that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients with hypothyroidism have an elevated exacerbation frequency but, despite this, experience similar quality of life to patients with normal thyroid function.
The research team, led by Sevinc Sarinc Ulasli (Afyon Kocatepe University, Turkey), studied a group of 44 COPD patients with hypothyroidism, 44 with COPD and normal thyroid function, and 40 healthy controls.
They found that patients with hypothyroidism had significantly more acute exacerbations over the course of a year compared with euthyroid patients, at a mean of 1.50 versus 0.86.
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