Thyroglobulin autoantibodies in endocrine diseases

A simple, rapid haemagglutination laboratory kit was developed for the measurement of the thyroglobulin autoantibodies (Tgl-AAb). The Tgl-AAb kit was applied to the measurement of the AAbs titres in the sera collected from 2861 endocrine patients either hospitalized in the Institute of Endocrinology (about 75%) or endocrine outpatients--the great part of patients (over 90%) being however diagnosed as thyroid disorders. The sex classification showed the F/M ratio 6.61/1 for the whole group and 7.4/1 for the positive cases. The prevalence of the Tgl-AAbs positive sera at low titre (under 1:200) is 11.6% about twofold higher than in a population of 700 blood donors (6.4%), previously reported. Among the significant Tgl-AAbs titres, chosen more or less arbitrarily over 1:200, 30.47% of the patients have titres in the range 1:200-1:5000. The Tgl-AAbs positive and negative sera are classified and analysed according to the endocrine pathology but especially thyroid disorders and the positive thyroid disease are grouped by low, high and very high Tgl-AAbs titres and by Tgl-precipitin positive. Our results are rather similar to those reported for endocrine collectivities in other countries. The technical and methodological sources of some discrepancies between the laboratory Tgl-AAbs results and the clinical symptoms and/or anatomo-pathologic results are commented as well as some of the future perspectives of the laboratory investigation of the thyroid autoimmune diseases. Concluding, a strategy schema for a possible immunogram is presented.