PERICARDIAL EFFUSION IN HYPOTHYROIDISM

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Abstract
Patients (39) with untreated hypothyroidism were examined using echocardiography for the presence of a pericardial effusion. Effusions were present in 12 patients who tended to be more severely hypothyroid. Plasma creatinine phosphokinase and lactate dehydrogenase levels were higher in the presence of an effusion. Nine were reinvestigated during thyroxine replacement therapy and the effusions did not disappear until thyroid function tests had returned to normal. There were no specific electrocardiographic changes associated with the presence of an effusion which could be associated with a normal cardiac silhouette on a standard chest X-ray.