THE COEXISTENCE OF THYROID AUTOIMMUNITY IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH VARIOUS ALLERGIC DISEASES

The aim of our study was to investigate the coexistence of thyroid aut oimmunity and allergic diseases. The prevalence of thyroid autoantibod ies was studied in sera from 140 children with different kinds of alle rgic diseases, 370 11-13-y-old schoolchildren without allergic disease s serving as controls. The prevalence of thyroid peroxidase autoantibo dies was found to be higher among the patients than in the control gro up, 11.4% vs 5.4% (p < 0.05). Ultrasound investigation identified auto immune thyroiditis in 4.3% (6/140) of the series, which was later conf irmed with fine needle aspiration in all six cases, four of which were unknown prior to the study. Our findings may be useful to alert clini cians that thyroid diseases may be superimposed on allergic children.