Yousuf Abd Mallick, Sidra Akhlaq Hussain, Maria Mansoor, Sana Gul, Madiha Izhar.
Frequency of thyroid autoimmunity and thyroid dysfunction in patients of chronic spontaneous urticaria in our population.
J Pak Assoc Derma Jan ;29(4):361-8.

Objective: To calculate the frequency of thyroid autoimmunity (TA) and thyroid dysfunction in patients of chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) in our population. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Dermatology outpatient department of Saifee Hospital Trust, Karachi for a period of twelve months. Clinically diagnosed, 55 cases of CSU of either gender, age ≥12 years, having urticaria for 6 months or more were included via non-probability consecutive sampling technique. Thyroid functions tests (TFT), thyroid autoantibodies (TAAbs) i.e. anti-thyroid peroxidase and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies, and antinuclear antibodies (ANA) were performed and results were recorded.   Results: In our study; the mean age was 32.7±12.8 years and mean duration of symptoms was 24.3±25.1 months. Out of 55 patients; 39 (70.9%) were female, 16 (29.1%) were male, and male to female ratio was 1:2.4. TA was present in 30 (54.5%) patients. 9 (16.4%) patients were ANA positive. TFT showed that 40 (72.7%), 10 (18.2%) and 5 (9.1%) patients were euthyroid, hypothyroid and hyperthyroid respectively. As compared to men, high percentage of women were found to be anti-thyroid peroxidase (P=0.005), anti-thyroglobulin (P=0.011), and ANA (P=0.046) positive. Patients having urticaria for longer duration were found to be TAAbs positive (P=0.014). Higher proportion of patients with TA diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. Anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody was more common but anti-thyroglobulin antibody was more associated with hypothyroidism (P=0.008).   Conclusion: The authors conclude that association between CSU and TA is statistically significant and a notable percentage of CSU patients have thyroid dysfunction. We recommend full TFT and TAAbs screening in all patients with CSU.  

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