Gastric parietal cell and thyroid autoantibodies in Behcet's disease patients with or without atrophic glossitis

Behcet's disease (BD) patients should have recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) but they may or may not have atrophic glossitis (AG). This study mainly assessed the frequencies of serum gastric parietal cell antibody (GPCA), thyroglobulin antibody (TGA), and thyroid microsomal antibody (TMA) positivities in 30 AG-positive RAS/BD (AG⁺RAS/BD) and 33 AG-negative RAS/BD (AG־RAS/BD) patients.

The frequencies of serum GPCA, TGA, and TMA positivities in 30 AG⁺RAS/BD patients, 33 AG־RAS/BD patients, and 126 healthy control subjects were calculated and compared.

We found that 20.0%, 30.0%, and 26.7% of 30 AG⁺RAS/BD patients, 9.1%, 12.1%, and 15.2% of 33 AG־RAS/BD patients, and 1.6%, 2.4%, and 2.4% of 126 healthy control subject had the presence of GPCA, TGA, and TMA in their sera, respectively. The 30 AG⁺RAS/BD patients had significantly higher frequencies of serum GPCA, TGA, and TMA positivities than healthy control subjects (all P-values < 0.001). The 33 AG־RAS/BD patients had a higher frequency of serum TGA positivity (P = 0.051, marginal significance) and a significantly higher frequency of serum TMA positivity (P = 0.011) than healthy control subjects. Although the 30 AG⁺RAS/BD patients had higher frequencies of serum GPCA, TGA, and TMA positivities than the 33 AG־RAS/BD patients, the differences were not significant.

AG⁺RAS/BD patients do have significantly higher frequencies of serum GPCA, TGA, and TMA positivities than healthy control subjects. This finding indicates that the concomitant presence of AG may result in significantly elevated frequencies of serum GPCA, TGA, and TMA positivities in BD patients.