ANTICARDIOLIPIN ANTIBODIES IN AUTOIMMUNE THYROID-DISEASES

OBJECTIVE In recent years anti-phospholipid antibodies have gained muc h attention since they are frequently associated with thrombosis, recu rrent abortion, and thrombocytopenia. Besides disease-specific autoant ibodies, other autoantibodies reactive with both organ and non-organ s pecific autoantigens have been found in patients with autoimmune thyro id diseases. Therefore the objective of this study was to evaluate the presence and significance of anti-phospholipid antibodies in untreate d patients with different forms of autoimmune thyroid diseases. PATIEN TS AND METHODS Thirty-one patients (26 females, five males; mean age 4 2.5 years) affected by different autoimmune thyroid diseases were stud ied. Fourteen patients were affected by Graves' disease, eight by sile nt thyroiditis, five by Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Four patients with Gr aves' disease in remission were also evaluated. Anti-cardiolipin antib odies were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. In five Grav es' disease patients anti-cardiolipin antibodies were evaluated before and after 3 months of therapy with methimazole. RESULTS Seventeen out of 31 patients were positive for IgG and/or IgM anti-cardiolipin anti bodies, the highest levels occurring in three Graves' disease patients with severe thyrotoxicosis. In four of five Graves' patients evaluate d before and after methimazole therapy, anticardiolipin antibodies dec reased following treatment. None of the patients with increased IgG an d/or IgM anticardiolipin antibodies showed clinical manifestations of the anti-phospholipid syndrome during our observation which ranged fro m 1 to 5 years. CONCLUSIONS Our results showed an increased incidence of anti-cardiolipin antibodies in patients affected by autoimmune thyr oid diseases. However, these autoantibodies seem merely to represent a non-specific marker of immune dysregulation.