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Abstract
Hypothyroidism, a prevalent endocrine disorder, is characterized by insufficient production of thyroid hormones in a body. Those hormones are essential for growth, regulating metabolism, and other body functions. Untreated hypothyroidism can lead to cognitive impairment, infertility, hypertension, etc.
In this study, hypothyroidism in the local vicinity of Quetta district was evaluated with respect to socio-economic factors (age, gender, ethnicity, area, etc) and the genes (TSHR, TPO, TITF1 and PAX8) involved in hypothyroidism. The study was conducted at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Vaccinology and Biotechnology, Quetta. For this study, two sampling methods were used: retrospective sampling through a structured questionnaire to evaluate the socio-economic factors and biological sampling through the collection of blood for the identification of genes involved in hypothyroidism. A total of 120 samples were collected from Heart and General Hospital, Quetta, out of which 25 patients were diagnosed positive with hypothyroidism, out of these 21 (84%) were female and 4 (16%) were male. The findings revealed that the females are more prone to this disease as compared to males. Other findings revealed that the age group of 26-45 showed more susceptibility as compared to other age groups. Most patients were from the Quetta district and belonged to the Pathan families and the majority of the affected patients were housewives. On the other side, molecular analysis showed that the rate of existence of the TPO gene showed the highest occurrence in individuals, 81% in females and 75% in males, followed by the TSHR and PAX8 genes. However, the TITF1 gene was least common among the patients.
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