Hypothyroidism is resulting from a deficiency of thyroid hormones, which is common condition with potentially devastating health consequences that affect all populations worldwide. 1 Thyroid hormones are essential for growth, neuronal development, reproduction and the regulation of energy metabolism. The prevalence of hypothyroidism varies considerably across the general population, ranging between 0.2% and 5.3% in Europe, 2 0.3% and 3.7% in the USA, 3 11% in India 4 and 17.8% in China (overt hypothyroidism: 1.1%; subclinical hypothyroidism: 16.7%). 5 Longitudinal studies from large UK cohorts report an incidence rate of spontaneous hypothyroidism of 3.5-5.0 per 1000 and 0.6-1.0 per 1000 in women and men, respectively. 6The clinical presentation of hypothyroidism is nonspecific and variable. Therefore, the diagnosis of hypothyroidism is based primarily on biochemical abnormalities. The pituitary hormone thyrotropin (TSH) has a complex inverse relationship with the thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). 7 Accordingly, overt hypothyroidism is defined as serum TSH concentrations above the reference range with low free T4 (FT4) levels, while subclinical hypothyroidism is diagnosed when TSH levels are high and circulating Abstract Purpose: To compare the effects of l-thyroxine (L-T4) administration before breakfast and administration at bedtime on hypothyroidism. Methods: The PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang databases were searched to identify relevant articles. All prospective or randomized controlled studies (RCTs) comparing L-T4 administration before breakfast to the administration at bedtime in patients with hypothyroidism were included in the analysis. Results: Initially, 2884 articles were retrieved from the databases, and 10 articles were included in the quantitative analysis. The effect of L-T4 administration before breakfast compared with administration at bedtime had no statistically significant association with hormone thyrotropin (TSH) (Standardized mean differences [SMD] = 0.09, 95% confidence intervals (CI): −0.12, 0.30; P = .39), or free triiodothyronine (FT3) (SMD=−0.19, 95% CI: −0.53, 0.15; P = .28) in patients with hypothyroidism. However, the result of FT4 level was favourable for L-T4 bedtime administration group (SMD=−0.27, 95% CI: −0.52, −0.02; P = .03).
Conclusion:Our meta-analysis revealed that L-T4 administration at bedtime is as effective as administration before breakfast for patients with hypothyroidism. Taking L-T4 at bedtime may be an attractive option for patients with hypothyroidism.
K E Y W O R D Sadministration timing, hypothyroidism, l-thyroxine, meta-analysis How to cite this article: Pang X, Pu T, Xu L, Sun R. Effect of l-thyroxine administration before breakfast vs at bedtime on hypothyroidism: A meta-analysis. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf).