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. 2018 May 6;9(2):16-21.
doi: 10.4292/wjgpt.v9.i2.16.

Hypothyroidism in patients with autoimmune pancreatitis

Ryoko Shimizuguchi  1 , Terumi Kamisawa  1 , Yuka Endo  1 , Masataka Kikuyama  1 , Sawako Kuruma  1 , Kazuro Chiba  1 , Taku Tabata  1 , Satomi Koizumi  1
Affiliations

Hypothyroidism in patients with autoimmune pancreatitis

Ryoko Shimizuguchi et al. World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther. .

Abstract

Aim: To examine thyroid function and clinical features of hypothyroidism in autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) patients.

Methods: We examined thyroid function in 77 patients with type 1 AIP (50 males, 27 females; median age 68 years, range 33-85) diagnosed according to the Japanese diagnostic criteria for AIP 2011. We compared clinical and serological findings between patients with and without various categories of hypothyroidism. The change in hypothyroidism after steroid therapy was also examined.

Results: Eight patients (10%) had hypothyroidism of 6 patients had subclinical hypothyroidism with a normal serum free thyroxine (FT4) and high thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level, and 2 patients had central hypothyroidism with low serum free triiodothyronine (FT3), FT4 and TSH levels. A significant goiter of the thyroid was not observed in any patient. There were no significant differences in age; male to female ratio; serum concentrations of IgG and IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD); presence of anti-thyroglobulin antibody, antinuclear antigen or rheumatoid factor; or presence of extrapancreatic lesions between the 6 patients with subclinical hypothyroidism and patients with euthyroidism. After steroid therapy, both subclinical and central hypothyroidism improved with improvement of the AIP.

Conclusion: Hypothyroidism was observed in 8 (10%) of 77 AIP patients and was subclinical in 6 patients and central in 2 patients. Further studies are necessary to clarify whether this subclinical hypothyroidism is another manifestation of IgG4-RD.

Keywords: Autoimmune pancreatitis; Hypothyroidism; IgG4-related disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict-of-interest related to this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Changes in thyroid stimulating hormone and free thyroxine levels after steroid therapy of autoimmune pancreatitis patients with subclinical hypothyroidism.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Changes in (A) thyroid stimulating hormone and (B) free thyroxine levels after steroid therapy of autoimmune pancreatitis patients with central hypothyroidism. TSH: Thyroid stimulating hormone; FT4: Free thyroxine.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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