[Autoimmune thyroiditis--selected etiopathogenic mechanisms].

Abstract Autoimmune thyroiditis occurs as organ specific autoimmune disease not only as an isolated impairment of thyroid gland, but also linked to many autoimmune endocrinopathies. Genetic predisposition in the area of HLA antigens was followed up by patients with autoimmune thyroiditis diagnosed in this way and it appeared that genetic predisposition in isolated autoimmune thyroiditis is different when compared to the occurrence linked to endocrine polyglandular disease. In selected groups of patients with autoimmune disease also the influence of extraneous factors on the development of the autoimmune process was followed up, namely the influence of heavy metals and the influence of infectious agent--Helicobacter pylori. These factors have a different character of activation of autoimmune thyroiditis too, depending on the character of its manifestation as isolated disorder or in link to autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type II, or in link to the group of polyglandular activation of autoimmunity. To conclude, this study leads to the assumption, that autoimmune thyroiditis is a set of clinical syndromes that depends on the activation of the autoimmune process, rather than a strictly genetically and epigenetically characterized nosological unit.