Thyroid and celiac disease: clinical, serological, and echographic study

Abstract Objective: We sought to reevaluate the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction and thyroid autoimmunity in 47 patients with celiac disease; 91 healthy subjects were studied as controls. Both patients and controls were from Sardinia, Italy. Methods: Diagnosis of celiac disease was made on the basis of clinical history, presence of positive antigliadin IgA (AGA-A) and IgG (AGA-G) antibodies, antireticulin antibodies (ARA), antiendomysium antibodies (EMA), and was confirmed by jejunal biopsy. HLA class II typing for DQB1 and DQA1 alleles was performed in 36/47 celiac patients. Thyroid was evaluated by palpation and echography; serum free thyroid hormones (FT4, FT3), thyrotropic hormone (TSH), and antithyroid peroxidase autoantibodies (anti-TPO) were assayed by radioimmunoassays. Results: The prevalence of anti-TPO was higher in celiac patients (29.7%) than in healthy controls (9.6%) ( p Conclusions: An elevated prevalence of clinical and subclinical autoimmune thyroid autoimmunity was found in Sardinian celiac patients, especially in those displaying the DQB1∗0502 genotype; this finding could be related to a particular genetic background of the Sardinian population.