Hypothyroid and repolarization complications

[GonzalezGirl]

frontiersin.org/articles/10...

I've just come across this article and find it fascinating if like me, you are struggling with thyroid disease and seeing the insidious and multiple ways it undermines your health.

I had a minor episode last year that resulted in an overnight stay in hospital where they were concerned about features of my ECG. The cardiologist explained it as a re-polarization issue, put me on blood thinners for a little while and told me to get a stress test.

Since then I have been changing my dose of T3 to respond to palpitations and a tightening of the chest. It seems that I become aware of these symptoms roughly 10-12 hours after a dose of T3 which interestingly is the half life of the hormone.

This correlation got me to researching the relationship and was pleased to find quite a lot of material online but a bit overwhelmed by its complexity. The article I have posted is relatively easy to understand.

The question for me is how do I present to a cardiologist with this information. Specialists hate being told by patients what the problem is or what's to be done. And yet on the basis of what I have learnt I would like the T p-e and JT intervals to be specifically investigated with a view to assessing them in relation to my medication regime, and my blood levels of thyroid hormones.

If anyone out there has experience of delayed re-polarization and the possible connection with thyroid disease, can we share notes?

Seasons greetings

[Aspenblue]

This is of interest to me as I had a heart attack in April, this was 4 weeks after start thyroxine and vitamin d. Both of those were off the scale. 4 weeks later and the heartattack happened. My thyroid and vit d levels were back to normal. No one will answer my question as to whether the medication may have affected me. My gp says that my thyroid levels returned to normal a little to quickly.During the angiogram they said my heart was okay, so I am lucky as I did not jeed a stent or Ny other interventions apart from the usual mess that you are prescribed after a heart attack.

I have had quite the emotional roller coaster ride as I am sure many do.

[fishonabike]

i understand your issue about discussing this with your cardiologist - might it be more helpful to see your endocrinologist and get their support and maybe ask if they can discuss this with a sympathetic cardiologist, or write to yours?

[wantie002 in reply to fishonabike]

Life would be so much easier if 1. I had an endocrinologist and 2. the specialist I sometimes refer to had any sort of understanding of thyroid disease beyond measuring TSH and blood T4. For these reasons I largely have to look out for myself trying to direct medics to make connections they would otherwise ignore. And there's the rub, they don't like a patient who has an opinion. Thanks for the reply it's always good to connect.

[fishonabike in reply to wantie002]

as someone with a poorly understood condition i appreciate the situation with getting doctors to make connections and accept that a patient might be better informed on their condition than they are

in UK if your GP is not sympathetic it is difficult to make progress - i hope you can find a way of reaching someone more helpful soon

[EMBoy]

Thank you very much for this paper, it was very interesting. I didn't understand the statistics, but got the gist of the physiology.

I have often suspected that my heart block and hypothyroidism could be linked in some way, (even though I have been biochemically euthyroid for many years) so it is good to see that someone is studying links between thyroid function and heart disease.

Unfortunately, endocrinologists don't seem to know much about electrophysiology and electrophysiologists don't seem to know much about endocrinology.