title: Thyroid autoimmunity and pre-term delivery: brief review and meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  About 10% of women in childbearing age are positive for thyroid antibodies. The presence of such antibodies has been associated with adverse obstetrical outcomes, in particular miscarriage and pre-term delivery, even though the strength of these associations varies widely from one study to another.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate from the available data of the literature, the association between thyroid autoimmunity and pre-term delivery.
  
  
  METHODS
  MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library search from 1990 to 2010. A combination of key words was used to generate 2 subset of citations, one indexing thyroid antibodies and the other indexing pre-term delivery as adverse outcome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seven studies, collecting about 23,000 patients were selected. Meta-analysis of the studies showed an association between thyroid autoimmunity and pre-term delivery [odds ratio =1.67 (confidence interval: 1.44- 1.94; p<0.001)].
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of the meta-analysis confirmed the association between thyroid autoimmunity and pre-term delivery. A cause-effect relationship has to be still clarified and interventional studies are required.
authors.affiliation: Division of Endocrinology, V. Fazzi Hospital, Piazza F. Muratore 73100, Lecce, Italy. robnegro@tiscali.it
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Negro
mesh_terms: D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology*; D015551:Autoimmunity / Q000276:immunology*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000276:immunology; D047928:Premature Birth / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology*; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies