Dataset Information

Pituitary antibodies in women with Hashimoto's thyroiditis: prevalence in diagnostic and prediagnostic sera.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pituitary antibodies have been reported with greater frequency in patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis than in healthy controls, although there is significant variability in the strength of the association and the methodologies used.

Methods

We designed a nested case-control study to characterize the prevalence of pituitary antibodies at the time of the clinical diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis, as well as at 2, 5, and 7 years before diagnosis. Active component female service member cases (n=87) and matched female controls (n=107) were selected using the Defense Medical Surveillance System database (DMSSD) between January 1998 and December 2007. Pituitary antibodies were measured by immunofluorescence using human pituitary glands collected at autopsy as the substrate.

Results

At diagnosis, pituitary antibodies were present in 9% of cases with Hashimoto's (8 of 87) and 3% of controls (3 of 107). When the data were analyzed using a conditional logistic regression model, which takes into account the matching on age and work status, pituitary antibodies increased the odds of having Hashimoto's thyroiditis by sevenfold (95% confidence interval from 1.3 to 40.1, p=0.028), after adjusting for components of the DMSSD-category-termed race and for thyroperoxidase antibodies. Before diagnosis, pituitary antibodies were positive in 3 of the 11 subjects (2 cases and 1 control) at the -2-year time point, and negative in all 11 subjects at the -5- and -7-year time points.

Conclusions

In summary, using a nested case-control design, we confirm that pituitary antibodies are more common in Hashimoto's thyroiditis and suggest that they appear late during its natural history.

SUBMITTER: Guaraldi F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3338955 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundHashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is a prevalent autoimmune disease of thyroid gland with a shared immunological mechanism with mood disorders. Affective temperament (AT) is a biologically determined personality trait that has been linked to mood disorders. The aim of this study was to examine the association between dominant AT and levels of psychosomatic symptoms in women newly diagnosed with HT in comparison to clinically healthy subjects.MethodsThe observational cross-sectional study with nested case control study was involving 146 consecutive participants, who were divided into three groups. The two study groups consisted of women with HT (73), including 49 with hypothyroid HT and 24 with euthyroid HT, and the third group was a control group of healthy participants (73). The Serbian version of the TEMPS-A was utilized to assess AT, while the 4DSQ was used to measure psychosomatic symptoms.ResultsThe results showed that hyperthymic AT was dominant in all examined groups. The groups with HT differed from the control group in terms of depressive and cyclothymic AT. Furthermore, the study found higher levels of psychosomatic symptoms in the group with HT compared to the control group, with significant differences in distress (p = 0.005) and somatization (p = 0.023) levels. All AT was associated with levels of psychosomatic symptoms in subjects with hypothyroid HT. In contrast, in subjects with euthyroid HT, the association was only found between depressive and cyclothymic AT with distress and depression levels, as well as between somatization and cyclothymic AT. No association was found between AT and anxiety levels in subjects with euthyroid HT.ConclusionThe research found differences between study groups in the association between AT and levels of psychosomatic symptoms. Further research with a larger sample size is necessary to more clearly define the associations between affective temperaments and psychosomatic symptoms in women with euthyroid and hypothyroid HT.