YOU ARE NOW CONNECTED TO THE TOXLINE (1981 FORWARD, NON-ROYALTY) FILE. ==GRAVES' DISEASE AND SCLERODERMA== 2 AUTHOR Mourier-Clavreul MC AUTHOR Rousset H AUTHOR Claudy A TITLE [Scleroderma and thyroid diseases] SOURCE Ann Dermatol Venereol; VOL 116, ISS 10, 1989, P701-6 (REF: 37) ABSTRACT The authors report a prospective study of the thyroid function of 18 consecutive patients with systemic scleroderma and 7 patients with morphea. A history was taken and patients were examined for thyroid disease. The patients were tested for free thyroxin, TSH, cholesterolemia, circulating TeBG, anti-microsomial and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies and had a TRH test. The incidence of thyroid diseases was correlated with an age and sex-matched control population consisting of 2,534 subjects of the Loire department. None of the patients with morphea had a history of thyroid pathology and the thyroid screenings were within normal limits. A familial history of thyroid disease was found in 7 out of 18 patients with systemic scleroderma, and 8 out of 18 patients had a thyreopathy (one Hashimoto's disease, one Graves' disease, one toxic adenoma, one hypothyroidism, two euthyroid goiters, two nodular thyroids). The TRH test only revealed a toxic adenoma. A thyroid disease preceded systemic scleroderma in 5 out of 18 cases with delays ranging from 1 to 38 years. In 3 cases, the thyroid disease occurred within two years after the onset of systemic scleroderma. The prevalence of thyroid disease was significantly higher than in a comparable population sample of subjects from the same geographic region (p less than 0.01). The authors review the literature and discuss the physiopathologic relationships between the two clinical entities. The authors suggest to perform a thyroid screening (ultrasensitive TSH assay) on all patients with systemic sclerosis and especially on those whose clinical follow-up is atypical and on those with a familial and/or personal history of thyroid disease. 3 AUTHOR Gardas A AUTHOR Rives KL TITLE Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of autoantibodies reacting with thyroid plasma membrane antigens in sera of patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases. SOURCE Acta Endocrinol (Copenh); VOL 113, ISS 2, 1986, P255-60 ABSTRACT A sensitive and specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of autoantibodies reacting with thyroid plasma membrane antigens has been established. Autoantibodies reacting with thyroid plasma membrane antigens were detected by the ELISA in 95% of untreated hyperthyroid Graves', 68% of antithyroid drug-treated Graves' up to four months of the therapy, in 62% of Hashimoto's thyroiditis and in 8.9% of toxic nodular goitre. The ELISA was negative in 100% healthy blood donors, 100% non-toxic nodular goitre, in 12 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, 18 patients with scleroderma and 94% of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. The mean value of autoantibodies titre was higher in untreated hyperthyroid Graves' (1:84,000) and lowest in positive patients with autoimmune disease of non-thyroid origin (1:4000). The cross-reactivity of antimicrosomal antigen antibodies was below 10%; there was no influence of antithyroglobulin antibodies on the ELISA; and most of the autoantibodies react with plasma membrane antigens different from the TSH binding sites. 4 AUTHOR Gardas A AUTHOR Czarnocka B AUTHOR Nauman J TITLE The presence of autoantibodies directed to thyroid plasma membrane antigens in sera of patients with thyroid disorders, estimated by the reaction with labelled protein A. SOURCE Acta Endocrinol (Copenh); VOL 105, ISS 4, 1984, P500-4 ABSTRACT The presence of antithyroid plasma membrane antibodies (ATMA) has been detected in 97% of patients with untreated hyperthyroid Graves' disease, 85% of methimazole treated hyperthyroid Graves' disease, 25% of Hashimoto's thyroiditis and 6.9% of patients with toxic nodular goitre. The ATMA index was negative in all healthy blood donors, in patients with non-toxic nodular goitre, with the thyrocardiac syndrome and with simple obesity. Studies of patients with non-thyroid autoimmune diseases revealed that ATMA is positive in 11% of patients with scleroderma, 17.6% of systemic lupus erythematosus and 16% of rheumatoid arthritis. The amount of immunoglobulin bound to thyroid plasma membranes after pre-incubation with serum from patients with Graves' disease varied from 4.2 to 25.2 pmoles per mg of membrane protein; these values are several times higher than the maximal binding capacity for thyrotrophin which is 1.28 pmole/mg protein. In the majority of the cases studied TSH did not significantly inhibit IgG bound from thyroid plasma membranes. Significant amounts of IgG were displaced by an excess of TSH only in three cases with untreated hyperthyroid Graves' disease.