Prevalence of chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis in adolescent girls

Chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis (CLT) is the most common cause of thyroid enlargement in children and adolescents in iodine sufficient areas. The prevalence and pattern of CLT in adolescent girls in iodine deficient regions supplemented with iodine is as yet not known. We therefore, carried out clinical examination for the presence of goitre in 330 healthy girls from Delhi in the age group of 16-20 years and those with goitre were further subjected to detailed biochemical (T3, T4, TSH), immunological (ATg ad ATm) and cytomorphological examination. The prevalence of goitre was found to be 40%. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) carried out in 94 girls with goitre (74%) revealed finding consistent with CLT in 13 (13.8%), colloid goitre with non-specific thyroiditis in 7 (7.4%), colloid goitre in 71 (75.5%) and specimen was inadequate in 3 (3.2%) girls. Thyroid antibodies were estimated in 114 of the goitrous subjects and both ATg and ATm were positive in 11 (9.6%) cases. Overall prevalence of CLT in this population was 4.0% and among those with goitre was 13.8%. When thyroid antibodies were also considered as an indicator of thyroiditis, prevalence rose to 14.4% among goitrous girls. Thyroid function tests were found to be within normal limits in all goitrous girls. This study for the first time reveals a high prevalence of CLT in goitrous adolescent girls from iodine supplemented region and underscores the need to study the prevalence of CLT in different age and sex groups from different regions of the country.