Publication:

Autoimmune thyroiditis CRP association

Background C-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute phase reactant and its serum levels may be risen during many diseases. Hypothyroidism is a clinical disease state accompanied by mild inflammation that is known to be significantly associated with atherosclerosis. In this study, we aim to determine and compare serum CRP levels in overt and subclinical hypothyroidism subgroups and research their association with autoimmune markers.

Methods Around 79 patients who are diagnosed with overt and subclinical hypothyroidism in our polyclinic were included in this study. Patients’ morning blood samples were collected after 8hours of fast and thyroid functions, CRP, sedimentation rate, anti TG and anti TPO antibody levels were studied. Thyroid ultrasonography was planned for each patient.

Results We found significant differences regarding age, sT3, sT4, TSH, anti-TPO, anti-TG and CRP levels between overt and subclinical groups. There was no significant difference between the groups in thyroxin use, nodularity and sedimentation rate. No significant difference was found between CRP levels and autoimmunity markers anti-TPO and anti-TG among the groups as well. A significant cut-off value was determined for CRP in overt hypothyroidism by using Roc analysis and this value was also considered for being a possible cardiovascular risk marker.

Conclusions In this study, we found out that CRP levels were high in both overt and subclinical subgroups, CRP levels were increased during progression of the disease from subclinical to overt and this increase may be related with higher inflammation and tendency to cardiovascular diseases.