Celiac disease in children and adolescents with Hashimoto Thyroiditis

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical and laboratory findings and determine the prevalence of celiac disease (CD) in children with Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT). Material and Methods:The data of a total of 80 patients with positive anti-thyroid antibodies who were aged between 6 and 17.9 years were retrospectively studied. Age, gender, complaints at the time of presentation, family history of thyroid disorders, clinical and laboratory findings were recorded. The levels of thyrotropin, free thyroxin, thyroid autoantibodies (thyroid peroxidase and thyroglobulin antibodies), immunoglobulin A (IgA), anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies (IgA-tTG), and thyroid ultrasonography findings were enrolled.Results: Eighty patients (65 females (81.2%) and 15 males (18,8%)) were included in the study. Family history of thyroid disease was present in 38 (47.5%) patients. The most common complaints at the time of presentation were goiter (%30) and weight gain (%25). Forty three (53.8%), 23 (28.7%), and 14 (17.5%) patients presented with euthyroidism, subclinical hypothyroidism and obvious hypothyroidism. Thirty seven (46.2%) patients had goiter. IgA-tTG was found to be positive after a diagnosis of HT was made in only one patient (1.25%) and the diagnosis of CD was confirmed when intestinal biopsy of this patient revealed villus atrophy, crypt hyperplasia and increase in the intraepithelial lymphocyte count. Conclusions:In our study, it was found that the most common complaints at presentation in patients with a diagnosis of hashimoto thyroiditis included goiter, weakness and weight gain and the prevalence of celiac diseases was found to be 1.25% (1/80). This study shows that the prevalence of CD in patients with a diagnosis of HT is higher compared to the prevalence in the healthy pediatric population.

Prevalence of latent and overt polyautoimmunity in autoimmune thyroid disease: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Out of 56 studies included in the systematic review, 25 were case‐control studies, 24‐47 17 were cohort studies 48‐64 and 14 were cross‐sectional studies 65‐78 . No clinical trials met the criteria used in the systematic review.…”

The Effect of Gluten-Free Diet on Thyroid Autoimmunity in Drug-Naïve Women with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: A Pilot Study

“…The results of many studies evidenced an association between Hashimoto's thyroiditis and coeliac disease or an asymptomatic increase in anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies [5][6][7][8]. Autoimmune thyroiditis is the most prevalent coexisting autoimmune disorder in patients with celiac disease [9].…”

Retrospective Analysis of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis in Children and Adolescents: A Single Center Experience

“…Euthyroidism is the most common thyroid pattern associated with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (20-80%). Dundar et al (13) reported euthyroidism in 62.8% of children and adolescents with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, Özen et al (14) and Tuhan et al (15) reported euthyroidism in 51.2% and 36.7% of these cases, respectively.…”

“…It has been reported that thyroid functions in children with Hashimoto's thyroiditis are mainly associated with the age of the cases and the possibility of subclinical and overt hypothyroidism increases with age (9) . Contrarily, it has been reported in the literature that patients with thyroid dysfunction are younger, and this condition has been explained with the view that early onset HT could have a worse prognosis (1,15,16) . However, in our study, no significant difference was found between age and thyroid functions which may be due to the small number of cases in our study population.…”

“…It has been reported that thyroid antibodies were found to be positive in the first-degree relatives in about half of the cases, and therefore autosomal dominant inheritance was considered. Tuhan et al (15) reported that the history of thyroid disease in the first degree relatives of cases with Hashimoto's thyroiditis had been revealed in 47.5% of the cases, Wasniewska et al (16) reported its incidence as 31.6%. In our study, a family history of thyroid disease was detected in 59% of the cases.…”