This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Thyroid dysfunction rates similar in adults with, without noninfectious uveitis
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Rates of thyroid dysfunction are similar between adults with and without noninfectious uveitis, suggesting that those with the ocular condition have no increased need for routine thyroid function evaluation, according to published findings.
Zohar Habot-Wilner, MD, of the division of ophthalmology at Tel Aviv Medical Center, Tel Aviv University in Israel, and colleagues conducted a single-center retrospective case-control study on 835 adults (mean age, 47.01 years; 58.9% women) seen at Tel Aviv Medical Center. The analysis included data from 235 adults with noninfectious uveitis and 600 controls to compare the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction between the two groups.
Overall, 7.3% of participants had thyroid dysfunction; 55 with hypothyroidism and six with hyperthyroidism. Prevalence of thyroid dysfunction was similar between the two groups (7.2% in the uveitis group vs. 7.3% in the control group). The most common thyroid disorder in both groups was hypothyroidism.
Among participants with noninfectious uveitis, 94.1% of those with hypothyroidism were women while women represented 56% of the group with no thyroid dysfunction (P = .002). Rates of underlying systemic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension and cardiac, rheumatologic or gastrointestinal diseases, did not differ between the two groups.
Among participants with noninfectious uveitis with or without thyroid dysfunction, no difference was found in the type uveitis.
“According to our findings, we suggest that there is no need for a routine thyroid function evaluation in patients with noninfectious uveitis,” the researchers wrote. “Specific uveitis entities such as [tubulointerstitial nephritis and uveitis], [Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada] syndrome and [human T-cell leukemia type 1]-associated uveitis were shown in case reports to be related to thyroid function abnormalities, and in these specific cases the characterization of thyroid function evaluation should be considered.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts