RESEARCH - The frequency of thyroid antibodies in fibromyalgia patients and their relationship with symptoms

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Clin Rheumatol. 2007 Jan;26(1):55-9. Epub 2006 Mar 16.

The frequency of thyroid antibodies in fibromyalgia patients and their

relationship with symptoms.

Department of Rheumatology, Trakya Medical Faculty, University of Trakya,

Edirne, Turkey.

We determined the frequency of thyroid autoantibodies in fibromyalgia (FM)

patients and the relationship between FM symptoms and these antibodies.

Euthyroid 128 FM patients, 64 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, and 64

healthy control subjects were included in the study. The sociodemographic

features and the clinical features of FM patients were determined. By using

a visual analog scale, patients were questioned about the severity of

FM-related symptoms. All patients were administered with Duke-Anxiety

Depression (Duke-AD) scale, the physical function items of the fibromyalgia

impact questionnaire scale. Thyroid autoimmunity was defined as the presence

of detectable antithyroglobulin (TgAb) and/or antithyroid peroxidase (TPOAb)

antibodies by the immunometric methods. Patients with a connective tissue

disorder, hypo- or hyperthyroidism, and patients who had psychiatric

treatment within the last 6 months were not included into the study. The

frequencies of thyroid autoimmunity in FM (34.4%) and RA (29.7%) patients

were significantly higher than controls (18.8%) (p<0.05). Twenty-six (20.3%)

FM patients had positive TgAb and 31 (24.2%) had positive TPOAb. When

patients with thyroid autoimmunity were compared to others, it was seen that

the mean age, the percentage of postmenopausal patients, the frequency of

dryness of the mouth, and the percentage of patients with a previous

psychiatric treatment were higher in this group (p<0.05). FM patients had

thyroid autoimmunity similar to the frequency in RA and higher than

controls. Age and postmenopausal status seemed to be associated with thyroid

autoimmunity in FM patients. The presence of thyroid autoimmunity had no

relationship with the depression scores of FM patients.

PMID: 16541203

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed & cmd=Retrieve & dopt=Abstra\

ctPlus & list_uids=16541203

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