Objectives:

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is the most common type of leukemia seen in adults worldwide. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is the most common form of autoimmune thyroid disease. Usually, there are high levels of thyroglobulin antibodies or thyroid peroxidase antibodies. Metabolic syndrome is also very common in the world and has become a public health problem threatening the world. Immune dysregulation in metabolic syndrome, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and autoimmune thyroid diseases unites these diseases on a common denominator. Based on this common mechanism, we aimed to investigate the frequency of insulin resistance and thyroid autoantibodies in patients with early-stage chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Materials and Methods:

Sixty-five early-stage chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients and 68 healthy controls were included in the study. Thyroid stimulating hormone, thyroglobulin antibodies, thyroid peroxidase antibodies, fasting blood glucose and fasting insulin levels were measured in the patients and control groups. Statistical evaluation was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows 20 (IBM SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL) program. The normal distribution of the data was evaluated with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Normally distributed numerical variables were shown as mean ± standard deviation, while numerical variables not showing normal distribution were shown as median (minimum, maximum). P<0.05 (*) value was considered significant in statistical analysis.

Results:

Demographic and laboratory findings did not differ significantly between patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and those without thyroid dysfunction. The ratio of insulin resistance, thyroid dysfunction and thyroid antibodies in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and control groups did not differ significantly (p>0.05).

Conclusion:

It was observed that the frequency of insulin resistance and thyroid antibodies in early-stage chronic lymphocytic leukemia was not different from healthy controls.

Keywords: Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, Insulin Resistance, Thyroid Antibodies, Metabolic Syndrome