Anti-TSH Receptor Antibodies in the Congolese with Hyperthyroidism

Abstract

Hospital prevalence of hyperthyroidism is gradually increasing in urban population of Kinshasa. However, the reasons of this increase are not well known. Objective of this study to search the presence of anti-TSH receptor antibodies in Kinshasas inhabitants, to identify potential candidates to the Graves disease and to follow up hyperthyroid patients treated by anti-thyroid drugs. For this, 53 hyperthyroid patients (cases) and 44 euthyroid goiter patients (controls) were included in this study; and 20 healthy free-goiter subjects serums were measured to obtain local references. Thyrotropinbinding inhibiting immunoglobulin assay (TBII) method was used to measure the anti-TSH receptor activity in the serum. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify significant risk factors and their prognostic values. A p. value of 0.05 was considered significative. It shows the prevalence of anti-TSH receptor antibodies in hyperthyroid patients is 94.3%, whereas it is 72.7% in controls; the presence of anti-TSH receptor antibodies multiplies by 4 the risk to hyperthyroidism, especially in the stressed females; and the concentrations of anti-TSH receptor antibodies are higher in hyperthyroid subjects than in controls (p = 0.025); 4) High sensitivity of the dosage (VPN = 99.9%) allows to separate non hyperthyroid persons or those with an non auto-immunological goiter, from the hyperthyroid patients. The present study showed a likely autoimmune origin of hyperthyroidism in urban population of Kinshasa; 2). The presence of anti- TSH receptor antibodies would suggest that the main cause of hyperthyroidism in hyperthyroid patients is Graves disease, whereas their presence in patients with euthyroid goiter should suggest that they could be potential candidates to Graves disease. This article also discussed some recent patent related to this field.