[Autoimmune thyroid pathology. Study and follow-up of pediatric case reports]

Eight children with Graves' disease and five children with Hashimoto's thyroiditis admitted to the Pediatric Department of the University of Trieste in the period 1980 to 1985 have been reviewed. The purpose of this study was to define the clinical course of autoimmune thyroid diseases and to evaluate the frequency of HLA haplotypes and immunological abnormalities in the affected patients and in their family members. Antithyroid microsomal antibodies were observed in 87.5% of the hyperthyroid patients and in 13.3% of their siblings and parents, in all the patients affected by Hashimoto's thyroiditis and in 18.18% of their first degree relatives. HLA A1-B8 was found to be associated with Graves' disease, HLA B35 was linked to chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis. Using monoclonal antibodies for enumeration of the subsets of T lymphocytes a deficit in suppressor T-cells was demonstrated in subjects affected by autoimmune thyroid diseases as in other immunological disorders.