GENETIC-MARKERS IN DIAGNOSIS AND PREDICTION OF RELAPSE IN GRAVES-DISEASE

Hyperthyroidism of Graves' disease takes an unpredictable clinical cou rse in the long-term follow-up. Whereas roughly 30-60% of patients rel apse after their first antithyroid drug treatment, the likelihood of r emission in the remaining group can not be foreseen. We have analysed- retrospectively-patients with Graves' disease that had been on antithy roid drug treatment for one year and were followed up thereafter. Pati ents were investigated for a variety of clinical parameters like optha lmopathy status and relapse or remission as well as gene polymorphisms of the HLA and other regions. Of the 259 patients analysed so far, pa tients with ophthalmopathy did not differ from those without for HLA D QA1 and CTLA4 alleles tested. Also, the subgroup of patients with rela pses after antithyroid drug treatment showed no different distribution of those alleles from the group with long-term remission. This study also confirms that the allele HLA DQA10501 confers susceptibility to Grave's disease, furthermore, that the CTLA4-alanine 17 allele is an a dditional predisposing factor.