Status of antithyroid antibodies in Bangladesh

Abstract

To study autoimmunity among thyroid diseases, 397 thyroid patients (age 30 (13) years; M/F 75/322) from two referral centres in Bangladesh and 94 healthy controls (age 30 (13) years; M/F 24/70) were studied for antimicrosomal and antithyroglobulin antibodies. Thyroid patients were clinically grouped as suspected autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD), non-autoimmune, or indeterminate groups (where no decision could be reached). Antimicrosomal antibody was strongly positive in 19.4% and weakly positive in 7.3% of patients but only 4.3% and 2.1% respectively in the controls ( 2 = 17.852; p = 0.000) whereas strong and weak positivity were 27.2% and 6.8% in patients compared with 8.5% and 4.3% respectively in the controls ( 2 = 16.916; p = 0.000) for antithyroglobulin antibody. Antibodies were positive in 63.0% with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, 36.4% with Graves' disease, and 44.7% with atrophic thyroiditis among the autoimmune group. In the non-autoimmune group antibodies were positive in 100% with multinodular hypothyroidism, 46.7% with subacute thyroiditis, 40.0% with suspected iodine deficiency goitre, 31.3% with toxic multinodular goitre, 30.8% with nontoxic solitary nodules, and 19.4% with simple diVuse goitre. None was positive for antimicrosomal antibody without being positive for antithyroglobulin antibody. The two antibodies strongly correlated in both patients (r = 0.977, p = 0.000) and controls (r = 0.986, p = 0.000). About 9% (36/397) of patients were mismatched with the final diagnosis on antibody measurement; most of them had Hashimoto's thyroiditis (33/36). Prevalence of AITD among thyroid patients was 48.36%. Specificity of antimicrosomal and antithyroglobulin antibodies were 93% and 87%. It was concluded that AITD is not uncommon in Bangladesh; antimicrosomal antibody is a useful marker for AITD and unless antibodies are checked, an appreciable number of patients with AITDs will remain undetected. (Postgrad Med J 2000;76:345-349)

Anti-Thyroid Peroxidase and Anti-Thyroglobulin Antibodies in patients with Hypothyroidism

“…Regarding anti thyroglobulin antibody which was also shown to be significantly higher in patients with primary hypothyroidism 74.3% than in normal population 17.1% with p<0.001 The highest percentage of positive patients in this study, were in the hypothyroid groups, which may reflect the autoimmune destruction of thyroid glands in those patients. This ratio is relatively similar when compared with research carried out by Hasanat et al (21) . This data are in accord with the study carried out by Delemeretal (22) which shows that autoimmune process by antithyroid peroxidase and antithyroglobulin antibodies were the most common cause of primary hypothyroidism.…”

Prevalence of Anti-Thyroid Antibodies in Patients with Primary Thyroid Disorders

“…Most of the patients with thyroid disease had detectable antithyroid antibodies. In another study, anti-TPOAbs and anti-TgAbs were found to be present in 85% and 30% to 60 % of patients with primary thyroid diseases respectively (4).…”

Clinical Study of Hashimotos Thyroiditis

“…In our series 87.5% of the cases had thyroid autoantibodies positive. The series of Hasanat et al 9 and Lakshamana Rao et al 8 reported thyroid auto antibodies positivity of 63% and 83.34% respectively. In our study, in the group that was hypothyroid at presentation, thyroid autoanitibodies were positive in 66.6% of cases.…”

“…In the euthyroid and hyperthyroid groups the thyroid antibody positivity was 100%. Hasanat et al 9 reported thyroid autoantibody positivity of 55% and 37% in their hypothyroid and hyperthyroid groups respectively.…”