Assessment of the frequency of antithyroid antibodies carriage in patients with vitiligo

Background. Autoimmune thyroid diseases are the most common comorbid pathology of vitiligo. Presence of elevated levels of antibodies to the thyroid tissue in the blood of patients is one of the signs of autoimmune thyreopathies. In foreign studies, a higher detection rate of antithyroid antibodies has been established in patients with vitiligo compared to healthy people. In Russia, the frequency of antithyroid antibodies carriage in patients of this category has not been studied before. Objective. To evaluate the frequency of antibodies to thyroid peroxidase (AT-TPO) and thyroglobulin (AT-TG) carriage in patients with vitiligo as well as to identify factors associated with the carriage of antithyroid antibodies. Material and methods. During the study, 35 patients with vitiligo and 29 healthy volunteers were examined. The research protocol included determination of serum concentrations of thyroid-stimulating hormone, free thyroxine, AT-TPO and AT-TG, thyroid ultrasound. IBM SPSS Statistics software package (version 26.0) was used for statistical data analysis. Results. A higher frequency of AT-TPO, AT-TG carriage and simultaneous AT-TPO and AT-TG carriage has been established in patients with vitiligo compared to healthy volunteers (p<0.05). Mean levels of AT-TPO and AT-TG in patients were 13.6 and 9.7 times higher, respectively, than those of healthy volunteers. It has been found when performing a multidimensional logistic regression analysis that age of patient, vitiligo duration, area of depigmentation, late onset of the disease and vitiligo duration of 10 years or more are the independent factors associated with AT-TPO carriage. Age of patient, age of vitiligo manifestation, late onset of the disease and vitiligo duration of 10 years or more are independent factors associated with AT-TG carriage. Conclusion. The obtained results indicate the advisability of inclusion of the AT-TPO and AT-TG levels investigation in screening of vitiligo patients for early detection of autoimmune thyroid pathology along with the determination of thyroid hormone content.