DOI: 10.36347/sajp

Pages: 89-96

Atherosclerosis is a complex multifactorial disease, which develops in the arterial wall in response to various stimuli like hyperlipidemia, hyperhomocysteinemia, hypertension, smoking, metabolic disorders and results in excessive inflammatory and fibro proliferative reactions. Hypothyroidism means deficiency of thyroid activity resulting from reduced secretion of total thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronin (T3). Biochemical decrease in T4 and T3 lead to hyper secretion of pituitary thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and an amplified increases in serum TSH levels.Hyperlipidemia is a major risk factor for atherosclerosis. There is positive linear correlation between TSH and total cholesterol [TC], low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglycerides (TGs), and negative linear correlation between TSH and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels. Alongwith hyperlipidemia, hypothyroidism is accompanied with moderately increased concentration of plasma total homocyteine (tHcy), an independent risk factor for atherosclerotic vascular disease.In subclinical hypothyroidism, there is also a significant increase in a cluster of metabolic cardiovascular disease risk factors. Thus, hypothyroidism is linked to atherosclerosis but exact molecular mechanism is yet not defined. So, present review focuses various etiological and pathophysiological aspects to link between hypothyroidism and atherogenesis