Population screening for autoimmune thyroid disease

Whether or not healthy adults in the community would benefit from screening for autoimmune thyroid disease is controversial. Although the prevalence o f unsuspected overt thyroid disease is low, a significant proportion of sub jects tested will have evidence of mild thyroid failure or excess. This art icle assesses whether subclinical thyroid disease is of sufficient clinical importance to warrant screening and, once detected and confirmed, to justi fy therapy. Population screening for autoimmune thyroid disease is assessed against recently revised screening criteria, using data from epidemiologic studies. Recommendations are proposed that may be applied in any iodine-re plete community.