AUTOIMMUNE THYROID-DISEASE AND GIANT-CELLARTERITIS

In a retrospective study of 115 patients with giant cell arteritis, 5 clinically patent autoimmune diseases were recorded; including 2 patie nts (1.8 %) with Grave's disease and 1 with hypothyroidism. Among thes e patients, 46 had systematic assays of blood thyroid hormones and 39 were systematically investigated for anti-thyroid antibodies (ATAb) : 3 (6.5%) had biological hypothyroidism and 4 (10.3 %) had ATAb. These findings were not significantly different from those of a control grou p of 39 age and sex matched patients.