Significance of prediagnostic thyroid antibodies in women with autoimmune thyroid disease.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Antibodies to thyroglobulin (Tg), thyroperoxidase (TPO), and TSH receptor (TSH-R) are prevalent in autoimmune thyroid diseases. We aimed to assess whether females with Graves disease or Hashimoto thyroiditis are more likely than age-matched controls to have thyroid antibodies before clinical diagnosis and to measure the timing of antibody seroconversion.

Methods

This was a nested case-control study using the Department of Defense Serum Repository and the Defense Medical Surveillance System, 1998-2007. We assessed thyroid antibodies in the serum of 522 female, active-duty, military personnel including: 87 Graves disease cases, 87 Hashimoto thyroiditis cases, and 348 age matched controls. One serum sample was available at the time of the clinical diagnosis (±6 mon

SUBMITTER: Hutfless S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3167665 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature