CTLA-4 gene is one of the strongest locus of genetic susceptibility to autoimmune thyroid diseases. The aim of the present study was to investigate surface expression of CTLA-4 on peripheral T cells in homozygotes AA and GG at position +49 of CTLA-4 gene in children with Hashimoto's thyroiditis and in healthy controls. Blood samples were obtained from 100 children: 45 with Hashimoto's thyroidit...

OBJECTIVE To characterize thyroid disturbances induced by interferon-alpha and ribavirin therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C. INTRODUCTION Interferon-alpha is used to treat chronic hepatitis C infections. This compound commonly induces both autoimmune and non-autoimmune thyroiditis. METHODS We prospectively selected 26 patients with chronic hepatitis C infections. Clinical examinat...

BACKGROUND Numerous genetic studies revealed several susceptibility genes of autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD), including CTLA4, PTPN22 and FCRL3. These immune-modulating genes are involved in genetic background of AITD among children and adult patients. However, possible age-related differences in overexpression of these genes remain unclear. PURPOSE The goal of this single centre cohort st...

Destruction-induced thyrotoxicosis includes various painful diseases such as subacute granulomatous thyroiditis, acute exacerbation of chronic thyroiditis and acute suppurative thyroiditis. In contrast, the clinically painless form of destruction-induced thyrotoxicosis is almost exclusively restricted to painless or silent thyroiditis. We report what we believe to be a case of acute exacerbatio...

OBJECTIVES: The authors described a case of Riedel’s thyroiditis, a relatively rare disease affecting the thyroid gland. RESULTS: A 38-year-old female was diagnosed with Riedel’s thyroiditis by a frozen section examination during attempted surgery for the suspicion of malignancy. The histopathologic examination confi rmed the diagnosis of Riedel’s thyroiditis combined with signs of giant cell a...

Familial clustering of autoimmune thyroid diseases has led to studies of their association with human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II genes. One such gene implicated in Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is HLA-DR3, but the association is weak and is contradicted by other reports. On the other hand, murine experimental autoimmune thyroiditis (EAT), a model for HT, presents a clear lin...

The serum thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level is decreased in acromegalic patients. Although this phenomenon is thought to be caused by the enhanced secretion of somatostatin which suppresses TSH production, it has not yet been proven. We describe a 60-year-old woman with acromegaly who showed a low concentration of TSH. We diagnosed her as painless thyroiditis based on an increased level o...

Thyroid gland disease of autoimmune origin presents wide spectrum of pathologies, Graves’ disease from one side and chronic thyroiditis with fibrosis and atrophy of gland parenchyma from the other one. Among them the highest number of misunderstandings is observed in pathological reports of chronic thyroiditis in pre-operative cytological as well as in post operative histological examinations. ...

Chronic autoimmune thyroiditis (chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis or Hashimoto’s thyroiditis) is the most common endocrine disorder in childhood and adolescence. Also it is the most common cause of acquired hypothyroidism in children. Thyroid hormones have critical impact on early brain development, somatic growth, bone maturation; they play a role in synthesis of more than 100 proteins that cons...

Classification from sonographic images of thyroid gland is tackled in semiautomatic way. While making manual diagnosis from images, some relevant information need not to be recognized by human visual system. Quantitative image analysis could be helpful to manual diagnostic process so far done by physician. Two classes are considered: normal tissue and chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis (Hashimoto’...