The Initial Study On The Association Between The Prevalence Of Thyroid Disease And Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Objective:Thyroid disease is common in systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE).To explore the association between the presence of thyroid disease and SLE.Methods:The study group included 60 SLE patients who were treated in the hospital.The control group included 60 healthy people. Thyroid function(included thyroperoxidase antibodies and thyroglobulin antibodies)were statistically analyzed byχ2 test.We compared the prevalence of thyroid disease between SLE patients and normal controls and also the prevalence of thyroid disease in SLE patients between those whose anti-thyroid autoantibodies were positive and negative.Results:The prevalence of thyroid disease and the positive rate of anti-thyroid autoantibodies in SLE patients (37%,47%) were higher than that in the normal controls (15%,20%)(p<0.05). The research detected high prevalence of hypothyroidism (17%) in the group of patients with SLE when they were compared to the control group(5%)(p < 0.05). The hyperthyroidism and Hashimoto thyroiditis occurred in a same frequency in the two groups. Compared with those whose antithyroid autoantibodies were negative,the SLE patients whose antithyroid autoantibod- ies were negative,the SLE patients whose anti-thyroid autoantibodies were positive had a higher prevalence of thyroid disease (64%vs11%()p<0.05).Conclusion:Patients with SLE have a greater prevalence of thyroid disease than of the normal population.Hypoth- yroidism is more common in systemic lupus erythematosus.The presence of antithyroid autoantibodies suggests a higher incidence of thyroid disease.It is essential to have thyroid function tested in the follow up of SLE patients.