The Prognostic Value of Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease and Depression

PURPOSE: Patients with the comorbidity of coronary artery disease (CAD) and depression are very common and always have poor prognosis. The relationship between thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels and major cardiovascular event (MACE) in these patients is still unknown. We aimed to explore this association. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We enrolled 203 CAD patients proven by coronary angiography (CAG). In the meanwhile, they were all assessed to have depression symptom by professional psycho-cardiologists. After an average follow-up of 23.7 months, patients were divided into two groups (high TSH group with TSH ≥ 1.395μIU/mL and low TSH group with TSH < 1.395μIU/mL) according to the cut-off value of baseline TSH. The impact of two different TSH groups for adverse events in CAD patients with depression was evaluated. RESULTS: The average age of these patients was 64.9 years old. The two TSH groups had no significant difference in the comparison of other baseline data. Area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (AUC) analysis indicated the well-discriminatory power of TSH levels for the occurrence of MACE (AUC = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.52–0.70, P = 0.03). In the KM survival analysis, high TSH group had a higher risk of MACE (P = 0.029). After multi-factor adjustment, there still existed a higher risk of MACE in high TSH group (HR = 2.05, 95% CI: 1.08–3.88, P = 0.028). CONCLUSION: In patients with the comorbidity of CAD and depression, higher TSH levels are associated with the occurrence of MACE. More researches need to be conducted to prove this association and explore whether the drug-related TSH reduction can decrease the occurrence of adverse events in the future.