Autoimmune thyroid diseases in 65 Japanese women with Turner syndrome

Turner syndrome (TS) is associated with a number of complications including thyroid disease. In this study, the prevalence of thyroid disease was evaluated in Japanese women with TS. The medical charts of 65 TS women (age 30+/-9 years old, range: 15-61), treated with estrogen replacement therapy or with antiosteoporotic pharmaceuticals at our outpatient clinic, were reviewed. History of thyroid disease, titer of thyroid autoantibodies, and thyroid function were recorded. Thyroid autoantibodies were undetectable in 28 of 65 women (43%), and thyroid function was normal in all these women. Of the 37 women with thyroid autoantibodies (57%), 3 had Graves' disease and 20 women were hypothyroidism and diagnosed as Hashimoto' s thyroiditis. The resting 14 women with euthyroidism were also considered to be so-called probable cases of Hashimoto' s thyroiditis. In 20 women with hypothyroidism, 14 (70%) received replacement therapy with levothyroxine. The replacement with levothyroxine started between age 17 and 60 (median: 31 years old). These data showed that more than half of Japanese women with TS in adulthood had thyroid autoantibodies. In women with TS, monitoring of thyroid hormone is important to detect hypothyroidism earlier and start adequate replacement therapy.