Increased prevalence of autoimmune thyroid disease in patients with type 1 diabetes.
BACKGROUND
Type 1 diabetes mellitus is frequently associated with other autoimmune diseases. The occurrence of common features of autoimmune diseases and the coassociation of multiple autoimmune diseases in the same individual or family supports the notion that there may be common genetic factors.


METHODS
To investigate potential clustering of autoimmune thyroid disease (ATD) among type 1 diabetes patients and the contribution of common susceptibility genes to this, HLA DR/DQ alleles as well as antithyroid autoantibodies were measured in 115 Korean patients with type 1 diabetes and their 96 first-degree family members.


RESULTS
Twenty-five percent of the patients had ATD, whereas 3 of 36 (8%) age-matched normal controls had ATD (RR = 3.7, p < 0.05). Twenty-six of ninty-six (27%) type 1 diabetes family members had ATD. No differences in the distribution of HLA alleles/haplotypes and genotypes between the patients with and without ATD were found.


CONCLUSIONS
From this finding, we could assess that individuals with type 1 diabetes and their relatives frequently develop ATD, perhaps due to common susceptibility genes that are shared among first degree relatives.
Department of Internal Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Y S
YS
Park
T W
TW
Kim
W B
WB
Kim
B Y
BY
Cho
D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005968:Glutamate Decarboxylase / Q000276:immunology; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens / Q000235:genetics; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*
D001323:Autoantibodies; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D005968:Glutamate Decarboxylase