BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress in Graves’ disease can potentiate the cytotoxicity of neutrophils and support autoimmune inflammation. Elimination of hyperthyroidism with conservative therapy with thiamazole only in some cases leads to remission, which determines the necessity to search an immunological markers for etiotropic therapeutic approaches in treatment of the disease.

AIM: To study the chemiluminescent and enzymatic activity of peripheral blood neutrophils in patients with Graves’ disease depending on hyperthyroidism compensation to determine the intracellular targets of immunotropic treatment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Spontaneous and zymosan-induced chemiluminescence was evaluated using a 36-channel chemiluminescence analyzer «BLM-3607» (MedBioTech, Krasnoyarsk). The reactivity of peripheral blood neutrophils was characterized by: Tmax — the rate of development of the chemiluminescent reaction, Imax — the maximum level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) synthesis and the area under the chemiluminescence curve (S — total synthesis of ROS for 90 minutes of measurement). The activity of NAD(P)-dependent dehydrogenases in neutrophils was determined using the bioluminescent method.

RESULTS: The prospective study included 126 women with Graves’ disease, aged 18 to 65 years, 93 (73.81%) with compensated and 33 (26.19%) with uncompensated hyperthyroidism. In uncompensated hyperthyroidism, the indicator S of spontaneous ROS and zymosan-induced lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence increases significantly, both relative to the control and to the values of compensated hyperthyroidism patients. Antigenic neutrophils stimulation during luminol-dependent chemiluminescence in patients with recurrent hyperthyroidism demonstrated more than tenfold increase in the total synthesis of ROS relative to the control, but no statistically significant differences with compensated hyperthyroidism patients. A high level of NADH-GDG was established in patients with recurrent hyperthyroidism, both relative to the control range and to the patients with euthyroidism.

CONCLUSION: Violation of oxygen peripheral blood neutrophils metabolism in patients with euthyroidism mainly affects the production of ROS, which is associated with hyperthyroidism compensation and the immunosuppressive effect of thiamazole. In patients with recurrent hyperthyroidism, there are more changes in the production of high-energy oxidants not only at initial oxidative reactions stage, but also at the level of secondary ROS, indicating the activation of cellular response immunological mechanisms.

AIM: Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) is the most common cause of goiter and acquired hypothyroidism in children and adolescents living in iodine-sufficient regions. In this study, we aimed to investigate the coexistence of other accompanying autoimmune diseases in patients aged 5–18 years who were diagnosed and followed up at the Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic of our hospital.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 220 patients aged 5–18 years who were diagnosed with HT at the Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic of the University of Health Sciences Ankara City Hospital. Patient’ age at admission, sex, family history, complaints at admission, comorbidities, physical examination and laboratory findings, and clinical follow-up information were retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTS: Of the 220 patients, 77.7% were female and 22.2% were male, with a mean age of 13.8±3.3 years. Of the 51.4 had euthyroidism, 40.4% had subclinical hypothyroidism,and 8.2% had overt hypothyroidism, respectively. Anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody was detected in 97% of patients and anti-thyroglobulin antibody (anti-Tg) was detected in 74% of patients. There was a family history of autoimmune disease in 36.4% of the patients. Autoimmune disease were present in 45 patients (20.4%). The most common autoimmune diseases in the patients were type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) (14%), celiac disease (5%), skin diseases (2.7%), and rheumatologic diseases (1.3%). No statistically significant differences were found between the sex, age at diagnosis, current age, family history of autoimmune disease and thyroid function status of patients with HT and T1DM.

The mean age of the patients followed up with HT with and without additional autoimmune disease was similar (p=0.644). In both groups, female sex was dominant. However, the number of male patients (35.6%) in the group with additional autoimmune disease was statistically significantly elevated than the group without autoimmune disease (19.9%) (p=0.016). The rate of subclinical hypothyroidism was statistically significantly elevated in the group without additional autoimmune disease (p<0.001). A statistically significant relationship was found between elevated Anti-Tg and additional autoimmune disease (OR=2.32 (95% CI; 1.16–4.56). The prevalence of additional autoimmune disease was increased 2.32 times in patients with elevated anti-Tg levels.

There was no statistically significant correlation between the sex of the patients, their thyroid function status and thyroid autoantibodies (p=0.507). However, the prevalence of celiac disease was statistically significantly elevated in female patients (43.5%) than in male patients (6.7%) (p=0.014). In addition, the prevalence of T1DM was found to be statistically significantly elevated in males (93.8%) compared to females (52.2%) (p=0.007). 13.3% of patients with additional autoimmune disease were under the age of 10 and 64.4% were above the age of 10, this was statistically significant (p<0.01). T1DM was the most common autoimmune disease in both groups.

CONCLUSION: As shown in our study, autoimmune diseases, especially T1DM and celiac disease, are associated with HT. It should be kept in mind that there is an increased risk of autoimmune disease in HT that affects both sexes and increases with age. In particular, regular follow-up of HT patients with elevated anti-Tg levels in terms of autoimmune disease development is important in terms of earlier diagnosis of diseases and reducing their morbidity.

Serum thyroglobulin is the main biomarker for postoperative monitoring of papillary thyroid cancer recurrence however, the high prevalence of the disease dictates the need to find a reliable indicator for laboratory diagnosis of the tumor process. The presence of antibodies to thyroglobulin affects the prognosis of the disease and determines the likelihood of relapse; however, it is impossible to influence the level of antibodies using currently available methods. More commonly, trends in anti-thyroglobulin levels at the time of disease detection and after radical treatment are considered, but there is disagreement on the interpretation of the results. Currently, various alternative biomarkers are being proposed and studied, the evaluation and comparison of which will be the subject of this literature review.

Acromegaly is a severe multifactorial neuroendocrine disease accompanied by increased secretion of growth hormone, which contributes to the active proliferation of cells of various tissues in the body. Among the complications of the disease, cardiovascular pathology predominates, and is often the cause of increased mortality. Recently, however, with acromegaly, cases of detection of thyroid cancer are increasingly described. The causes and increasing prevalence of benign and malignant neoplasms of the thyroid gland in patients with acromegaly cause much debate in the medical world. The American Thyroid Association guidelines do not include acromegaly in the list of conditions with an increased risk of thyroid cancer but a number of experimental and epidemiological data indicate a high likelihood of such complications. We present a clinical case of diagnosed papillary thyroid cancer in a patient with acromegaly.