ACTA ENDOCRINOLOGICA (BUC)

Background. Thyroid disorders are the most prevalent of all autoimmune diseases and identifying them clinically can be challenging. A retrospective study was taken up with the aim to determine the prevalence of anti thyroid antibodies (ATA) in both suspected thyroid as well as non-thyroid diseases.\r\nMaterials and methods. During a period of 18 months, 207 serum samples were screened for anti thyroid antibodies by Elisa method. Clinical data of 171 cases were available for review. These 171 cases were classified into two clinical subgroups: thyroid diseases (106 cases) and non-thyroid diseases (65 cases).\r\nStatistical Method. For data analysis Epi-info was used.\r\nResults. 60.82% cases were positive for anti thyroid antibodies. 53.22% (91/171) were positive for anti Thyroglobulin (TG) antibodies whereas 50.29% (86/171) were positive for anti Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibodies. For TG 34.50% were strongly positive and 18.71% were weakly positive and for TPO, there were 32.75% and 17.54%, respectively. ATA were positive in 79.25% of suspected thyroid diseases whereas they were positive in 30.77% of non-thyroid diseases. The relationship between the two antibodies was highly significant as it was observed that both thyroid antibodies were present in 68.87% (73/104) of positive cases whereas 29.81% (31/104) were positive for either TG or TPO antibodies alone.\r\nConclusion.ATA are good markers for the assessment of thyroid autoimmunity. Being negative for antibodies does not necessarily exclude thyroid autoimmunity in many instances; but when antibodies are positive, together with clinical presentations, they strongly indicate the autoimmune nature of the disease.