title: Increased prevalence of anti-thyroid antibodies in patients with limited scleroderma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Thyroid dysfunction in the setting of systemic sclerosis (SSc) has been described previously. We aimed to determine the prevalence of anti-thyroid antibodies (ATA) in a large SSc cohort and to ascertain whether they are associated with distinct clinical phenotypes.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 138 patients with SSc [46 with diffuse (dSSc) and 92 with limited scleroderma (lSSc)] and 100 healthy controls (HC) were tested for the presence of ATA [anti-thyroglobulin (anti-Tg) and anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibodies] using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Clinical and serological data were recorded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  An increased prevalence of anti-TPO but not anti-Tg antibodies was detected in patients with SSc compared to HC (27.5% vs. 14%, p = 0.016). Of note, a statistically significant increase of anti-TPO was detected only in patients with lSSc compared to HC (32.6% vs. 14%, p = 0.003). No correlations with other clinical features were detected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An increased prevalence of anti-TPO antibodies was identified in patients with lSSc. We propose that ATA testing should be offered to this subgroup of patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathophysiology, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece. kmauragan@med.uoa.gr
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Danielides
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Mavragani
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Katsakoulas
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zintzaras
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Drosos
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Vlachoyiannopoulos
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Moutsopoulos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000888:Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic / Q000097:blood*; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007453:Iodide Peroxidase / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D045743:Scleroderma, Diffuse / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D045745:Scleroderma, Limited / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000888:Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic; D001323:Autoantibodies; C006606:anti-thyroglobulin; D007453:Iodide Peroxidase