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Abstract
Abstract. The relevance of the study is primarily due to the fact that the frequency of autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs), which include autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) and Graves’ disease, has increased significantly in recent decades, and AIT is the most common thyroid disease, the frequency of which is 0.3–1.5 cases per 1000 people. Recently, when observing the course of thyroid gland disease, clinicians often encounter the «crossroads syndrome» – a condition where one autoimmune thyroid disease is «changed» by another with a change in its functional state – from hypothyroidism to the development of thyrotoxicosis and vice versa. It is obvious that there is a cross-change of antithyroid antibodies, which changes the functional state of the thyroid gland, but the triggering factors and pathogenetic mechanisms of this process have not yet been sufficiently studied. The aim was to study the levels of Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies (TPOAbs), Thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAbs) and the TSH receptor antibodies (TSHrAbs/TSI) in patients with AIT and their correlation with the disease duration and the functional state of the thyroid gland. Material and methods. The research was carried out at the State Institution «V.P. Komisarenko Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine» using clinical, laboratory, and statistical methods. The group of patients consisted of 200 patients with AIT, among whom there were 193 women and 7 men; the average age of the patients was 33.80±0.60 years. In the study, the levels of TPOAbs, TgAbs, and TSHrAbs/TSI in patients with AIT were analyzed depending on the disease duration and the functional state of the thyroid gland (euthyroidism and hypothyroidism). Results. It was established that the level of TPOAbs, increased by two times compared to the upper reference of normal values, occurred in 74% of patients with AIT, TgAbs – in 33.5%, TSHrAbs – in 12% of patients (simultaneously with an increase in the level of TPOAbs). An isolated increase in TPOAbs occurred in 50.5% of patients, TgAbs in 7.5%, and absence of TPOAbs and TgAbs in 6.5%. No significant difference was found between the values of TPOAbs, TgAbs, and TSHrAbs/ TSI depending on the duration of the disease – the levels of antithyroid antibodies did not differ in patients whose disease duration was 1-2 years compared to patients who were ill for more than 10 years. It was also found that the levels of TPOAbs, TgAbs, and TSHrAbs/TSI did not depend on the presence/absence of hypothyroidism, which may indicate that the «crossover syndrome» can also develop in patients with hypothyroidism. A weak positive correlation between TgAbs levels and thyroid volume was established.
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