A meta-analysis of the association of serum ischaemia-modified albumin levels with human hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism

Serum levels of ischaemia-modified albumin (IMA) have been studied as a novel and simple measure of oxidative stress (OXS) in different thyroid pathologies. However, results of available studies in the literature were not consistent. This meta-analysis was attempted to quantify the overall effect size for serum IMA levels in human hypothyroidism (HT) and hyperthyroidism (HYT) and to study its associations with the thyroid profile. Databases of PubMed/Medline, EMBASE, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Science Direct were searched for articles. Data on serum IMA levels in HT, HYT patients and euthyroid controls were extracted to compute standardized mean differences (SMD) by the random-effects model. The associations between IMA and thyroid profile were computed by the meta-analysis of correlation coefficients. IMA levels in HT patients (SMD=1.12; Z=2.76; P=0.006) and HYT patients (SMD=1.64; Z=2.57; P=0.01) were significantly higher than in euthyroid controls and the thyroid treatment showed a favourble effect on serum IMA levels. There were strong and significant correlations between IMA and hormonal status in HT and HYT groups. This meta-analysis showing increased IMA level in both HT and HYT patients and its association with thyroid profile suggests that serum IMA could be used as a simple measure of increased OXS in thyroid dysfunction.