Rheumatoid arthritis patients exhibited statistically significant lower mean TSH values as compared to OA patients. However, RA patients with low TSH values did not have elevated FT4I. Previous use of corticosteroids in some of the RA patients may be responsible for these results.hyroid disease associated with rheumatoid arthritis is not adequately screened with a sensitive chemiluminescence thyrotrophin assay. Ilias I(1), Mastorakos G, Mavrikakis M, Papazoglou S, Karamitsos D, Ntantis P, Mantzos E, Mantzos I, Koutras DA. Author information: