Allergy Asthma Respir Dis.  2013 Jun;1(2):151-156. 10.4168/aard.2013.1.2.151.

Thyroid autoantibodies and the prognosis of chronic idiopathic urticaria

• Lee SY
• Song WJ
• Jung JW
• Park HW
• Cho SH
• Min KU
• Kang HR

• KMID: 2261863
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4168/aard.2013.1.2.151

Abstract

PURPOSE
Chronic urticaria is a common disease, but clinically, it is not easy to treat and predict the prognosis since the causes and pathophysiology of chronic urticaria remain unknown. Many studies have been done that defined the association between chronic urticaria and thyroid autoimmunity. However, the clinical role of antithyroid antibodies (ATAs) has not been fully evaluated.
METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients with chronic urticaria and compared the duration of treatment, the frequency of steroid use, and the level of medications used in the treatment of urticaria according to the presence or absence of ATAs including the antithyroglobulin (anti-TG) antibody, antithyroid peroxidase antibody, and antithyrotropin-stimulating hormone receptor antibody.
RESULTS
A total of 194 patients with chronic urticaria was enrolled; of which, 108 patients were free of ATAs and 86 patients had at least one ATA. The treatment duration was significantly longer in the anti-TG antibody-positive patients compared to the patients without ATAs (39.6+/-10.2 months/18.0+/-3.4 months, P=0.02). The patients with the anti-TG antibody also showed more frequent steroid use than that of the patients without the anti-TG antibody (2.1+/-0.4/1.1+/-0.3, P=0.05). The level of medications used to achieve control of urticaria tended to be higher in patients with the anti-TG antibody than in the ATA-negative patients group.
CONCLUSION
From this study, we suggest that the evaluation of thyroid autoantibodies, especially the anti-TG antibody, can be a useful tool in predicting the prognosis and making decisions for the treatment strategy of patients with chronic urticaria.

Keyword

Urticaria; Thyroid gland; Autoimmunity; Autoantibodies

MeSH Terms

Antibodies
Autoantibodies
Autoimmunity
Humans
Medical Records
Peroxidase
Prognosis
Retrospective Studies
Thyroid Gland
Urticaria
Antibodies
Autoantibodies
Peroxidase

Figure

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  Fig. 1 The concordance rate of anti-thyroid antibody (ATA) (+) and autologous serum skin test (ASST) (+). A total of 16 patients represented double positivity to antithyroid antibody and autologous serum skin test among 54 patients who underwent both tests.

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  Fig. 2 Diagram exhibiting distribution of each antithyroid antibody (ATA) among patients who showed positivity to at least one ATA. Anti-TG Ab, antithyroglobulin antibody; antithyroid peroxidase (TPO) Ab, antimicrosome antibody.

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  Fig. 3 The number of steroid use was higher in anti-thyroglobulin (anti-TG) antibody positive group than negative group.

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