Vitiligo in autoimmune thyroid disease

The authors studied the association between vitiligo and autoimmune thyroid disease. Vitiligo was found in 20 of 293 patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (6.83%), 2 out of 227 patients with nonautoimmune thyroid disease (0.88%), and 3 out of 386 control group (0.78%). These results showed that vitiligo is closely associated with autoimmune thyroid disease (chi 2 = 24.33, p < 0.0001), but not with nonautoimmune thyroid disease. Prevalence of vitiligo in nonautoimmune thyroid disease was not different from that in control. Vitiligo in autoimmune thyroid disease was most frequently found on dorsum hands and forearms, and usually preceded the onset of thyroid disease. Four out of twenty patients with vitiligo associated autoimmune thyroid disease had another presumed autoimmune disease, that is, alopecia areata, alopecia totalis, and rheumatoid arthritis. These findings suggested that autoimmunity plays an important role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo.