[Lympho-plasmacellular thyroiditis and diabetes mellitus]

In a retrospective study of their autopsy cases the authors investigate the presence of lymphocytic infiltrations in the thyroids of 44 diabetics up to age 55 and compare these thyroids with 72 post-mortem controls. Size and number of the infiltrations were determined by a semiquantitative method on the histological slide. The non-diabetic controls and the non-insulin-dependent diabetics included 5 out of 72 (6.9%) and 3 out of 31 (9.7%) cases respectively with more than 10 infiltrations per 100 mm2 thyroid tissue. The insulin-dependent diabetics, however, showed significantly more, i.e. 5 out of 13 (38.5%) patients with more than 10 infiltrations per 100 mm2 tissue. All were asymptomatic with the exception of one young diabetic with clinical signs of hypothyroidism.