Complications

===-“Mental sluggishness, drowsiness, and lethargy of hypothyroidism may progress gradually or suddenly to a notable impairment of consciousness or coma. This is also known as myxedema coma. Myxedema coma is characterized by subnormal temperature, hypotension, and hypoventilation” (Lewis, et al., 2011, p. 1270).=== ==="Symptoms and complications range in severity from fatigue and cold intolerance to myxedema coma/crisis, a life-threatening medical emergency characterized by decreased level of consciousness, hypothermia, hypoventilation, hypotension, hypoglycemia, and lactic acidosis. Other complications include hypercholesterolemia, arteriosclerosis, ischemic heart disease, cardiomegaly, heart failure, achlorhydria (i.e., absence of or little secretion of gastric acid in the stomach), anemia, lowered immunity, depression, hair loss, and miscarriage. Severe HPO in some patients may lead to the development of organic psychoses with paranoid delusions, referred to as “myxedema madness" (Buckley, Schub, 2011, p.1).===