Screening for autoimmune thyroiditis and celiac disease in minority children with type 1 diabetes

Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and celiac disease (CD) are commonly associated with type 1 diabetes (T1DM). There is no consensus on screening, however, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) recommend testing for thyroid function (TFT), thyroid antibodies and anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies (TTG) IgA soon after diagnosis. TFT should be repeated every 1-2 years while TTG IgA should be tested for within 2 and 5 years. We hypothesize that the rate of HT and CD in our T1DM children is lower, so screening may need to be revised to reflect their underlying risk.

An Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved retrospective chart review was conducted on children with T1DM in the past 10 years. Age, sex, race, A1C, TFT, thyroid and celiac antibodies were obtained. t-Tests, the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test and stepwise regression were performed.

Of 222 children with T1DM, with a mean age of 15.8±5.53 years, followed for 6.1±4.0 years, 53% female, mean A1C 11.1±1.9% and 87% African American (AA). Three had Graves' disease (1.3%), three had HT (1.3%) and 97% were euthyroid. TFT were assessed on average every 1.3 years and thyroid antibodies every 2.5 years. Positive thyroid antibody was found in 11%, negative in 57% and unknown in 32%. The positive antibody group had higher mean A1C and TSH. No biopsy confirmed cases of CD (0%) were found when screened every 2.3 years.

The number of individuals who screened positive for hypothyroid HT and CD was lower than expected in our population. Further studies are needed to assess the optimal screening frequency for HT and CD in minority children with T1DM.