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. 2015 Jul-Dec;6(2):402-5.
doi: 10.4103/0976-9668.160021.

Anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody positivity during early pregnancy is associated with pregnancy complications and maternal morbidity in later life

Raghunath Bhattacharyya  1 , Kasturi Mukherjee  2 , Anjan Das  3 , Madhuri Ranjana Biswas  3 , Sandip Roy Basunia  3 , Anindya Mukherjee  4
Affiliations

Anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody positivity during early pregnancy is associated with pregnancy complications and maternal morbidity in later life

Raghunath Bhattacharyya et al. J Nat Sci Biol Med. 2015 Jul-Dec.

Abstract

Aims: We assessed the impact of detecting anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies (anti-TPO-Ab) in the first trimester of pregnancy on pregnancy outcomes and maternal thyroid function during the postpartum period.

Materials and methods: In a prospective study consisting 400 pregnant women (8-12 weeks pregnant) were screened for their thyroid profile and followed-up to 12 weeks postpartum. Patients with abnormal thyroid function at 12 weeks postpartum were further followed-up with repeated assessment of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and serum-free thyroxine-4 levels at 8 weeks interval up to 12 months postpartum.

Results: 11.5% of the subjects were positive for anti-TPO-Ab who had mean TSH level of 2.31 μIU/ml, which was significantly (P- 0.0001) higher than pregnant women negative for anti-TPO-Ab (1.73 μIU/ml). Increased incidence of miscarriage was observed in anti-TPO positive mothers when compared to antibody negative mothers. Postpartum thyroid dysfunction developed in 4.7% cases at 12 weeks, among them antibody positivity was observed in 81.25% of subjects. In 18.75% mothers positive for anti-TPO-Ab, the thyroid dysfunction persisted up to 12 months postpartum.

Conclusions: Thyroid antibodies detected in early pregnancy seems to be predicting pregnancy complications and later maternal thyroid disease related morbidity.

Keywords: Outpatient department; postpartum thyroid dysfunction; postpartum thyroiditis; thyroid peroxidase antibody.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

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Figure 1
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