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Review
. 2020 Jun;68(3):471-474.
doi: 10.1007/s12020-020-02364-8. Epub 2020 Jun 7.

Thyroid disease in the time of COVID-19

Dorota Dworakowska  1   2   3 , Ashley B Grossman  4   5
Affiliations
Review

Thyroid disease in the time of COVID-19

Dorota Dworakowska et al. Endocrine. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

The novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 is produced by SARS-CoV-2. WHO has declared COVID-19 as a public health emergency, with the most susceptible populations (requiring ventilation) being the elderly, pregnant women and people with associated co-morbidities including heart failure, uncontrolled diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and cancer. However, such general guidance does not provide information regarding COVID-19 risks in patients with suffering from pre-existing thyroid problems, and furthermore, we do not know whether patients with COVID-19 (symptomatic or without symptoms), who have not previously had thyroid issues develop endocrine thyroid dysfunction after infection. The European Society for Endocrinology recently published a statement on COVID-19 and endocrine diseases (Endocrine, 2020); however, thyroid diseases were not mentioned specifically. We have therefore reviewed the current literature on thyroid diseases (excluding cancer) and COVID-19, including data from the previous coronavirus pandemic caused by the SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV), a member of the same family Coronaviridae leading to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). At the moment there are no data suggesting that thyroid patients are at higher risk of COVID-19, but this requites further research and data analysis.

Keywords: AITD; COVID-19; Thyroid; Thyroid autoimmune disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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