Thyrotropin Receptor Antibodies in Early Pregnancy

Thyrotropin (TSH) receptor antibodies (TRAb) are important when distinguishing between Graves' and gestational hyperthyroidism, but sparse evidence exists on the recommended cutoff during pregnancy.

This work aimed to establish a method- and pregnancy-specific cutoff for TRAb, to describe the frequency of TRAb positivity in early pregnancy, and to follow up the women in the years after pregnancy.

This cohort study used the North Denmark Region Pregnancy Cohort and Danish nationwide registers of women in the North Denmark Region who had a blood sample drawn in early pregnancy, 2011 to 2015, that was stored in a biobank for assessment of thyroid function and thyroid autoantibodies. A cutoff value for TRAb was established in a reference cohort (n = 524) and used to identify TRAb-positive and TRAb-negative hyperthyroidism in early pregnancy for evaluation of frequency and follow-up.

The method- and cohort-specific cutoff for TRAb in early pregnancy was 0.98 IU/L (95% CI, 0.96-0.99 IU/L). Among women with low TSH in early pregnancy and no known thyroid disease (n = 414), 21 women (5.1%) were TRAb positive and 393 (94.9%) were TRAb negative. Follow-up in the years following the pregnancy (median 8.1 years) revealed that 52.4% of women with TRAb-positive hyperthyroidism and 8.4% of the women with TRAb-negative hyperthyroidism were diagnosed with hyperthyroidism.

This is the first study to measure TRAb in a large group of women in early pregnancy and to establish a pregnancy-specific cutoff. Results reveal that TRAb-negative hyperthyroidism is predominant in early pregnancy and rarely associated with later development of hyperthyroidism.