Selenium status in patients with autoimmune and non-autoimmune thyroid diseases from four European countries

Abstract

Context: Selenium supplementation has been suggested for Hashimoto thyroiditis and Graves' ophthalmopathy. Objective, Design: Our aim is to measure selenium status (p-Se, p-SePP), urine iodine (UI) levels and urine iodine/creatinine ratio (UI/C) in different thyroid diseases (n = 416) from four European countries and to compare the results between patients with and without thyroid autoimmunity.

Results: p-Se and p-SePP showed positive correlation and did not correlate with UI/C. Also, these measurements were higher in patients from Italy in comparison with the other countries. Austria had the lowest UI/C ratios. Selenium deficiency exists in these four European countries. Selenium status was lower in patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis and Graves' disease in comparison with non-autoimmune thyroid disease patients and did not differ between autoimmune patients with or without thyroid peroxidase antibodies. The latter correlated positively with age.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that Se supplementation might have a beneficial effect in autoimmune thyroid patients.

Keywords: Graves’ disease; Hashimoto’s thyroiditis; non-autoimmune thyroid disease; plasma selenium; plasma selenoprotein P; selenium status; thyroid diseases; urine iodine.