| Title | Puberty is associated with a marked increase of the female sex predominance in chronic autoimmune thyroiditis. | | Author(s) | Mariotti S, Prinzis A, Ghiani M, Cambuli VM, Pilia S, Marras V, Carta D, Loche S | | Institution | Endocrinology, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy. mariotti@medicina.unica.it | | Source | Horm Res 2009; 72(1):52-6. | | Abstract | BACKGROUND: Chronic autoimmune thyroiditis (CAT) displays a strong female predominance with female-to-male (F:M) ratios of 4-20:1 in adults and 2-9:1 in children and adolescents. Both genetic and hormonal factors are involved in this phenomenon. The relation between puberty and F:M ratio in CAT has never been evaluated.
METHODS: The F:M ratio of 133 children with CAT (group A, age at diagnosis 2.4-17.7 years) was compared with that of 113 adult CAT patients (group B, age at diagnosis 21-79 years). Group A included 64 prepubertal (aged 2.4-13.2 years, group A1) and 69 pubertal (aged 9.2-17.4, group A2) children.
RESULTS: The F:M ratio in group A was 3.0, which is significantly (p < 0.001) lower than that (10.3) found in group B patients. The F:M ratio of group A1 prepubertal children was lower (1.6) and significantly different from that of pubertal (6.7, p < 0.01) and adult patients (10.3, p < 0.0001). This phenomenon was more evident in hypothyroid as compared to euthyroid CAT.
CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first evidence that female predominance of CAT strongly increases during puberty, suggesting a major role for sex hormones in this phenomenon. Further studies are needed to clarify this point. | | Language | eng | | Pub Type(s) | Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
| | PubMed ID | 19571560 |
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