Neurological signs and symptoms in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease

Abstract

Neurological and/or psychiatric signs and symptoms can characterizes the clinical picture of encephalopathy associated with autoimmune thyroid diseases and high levels of serum antithyroid autoantibodies. To the best of our knowledge, the literature does not include data on neurological abnormalities in patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases without encephalopathy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the neurological signs and symptoms that are not associated with a previously identified disease in patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases. This study included 66 patients who were diagnosed with autoimmune thyroid disease. Before the neurological examination, a detailed history of neurological symptoms was obtained for each patient. No neurological symptoms had been present before the test in 47 of 66 patients (71%). Of the remaining 19 patients (29%), 13 of 66 (20%) patients had headache. Among patients with headache, the concentrations of thyroid peroxidise antibodies were slightly higher than in patients without headache, though the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.380, Mann-Whitney test). The patients who took part in this study complained of other neurological symptoms including vertigo (two patients, 3.0%), tingling of hands (two patients, 3.0%), transient weakness of one leg (one patient, 1.5%) and forgetfulness (one patient, 1.5%). Electroencephalography was performed only in patients with neurological symptoms and was normal in all of these patients. Hashimoto encephalopathy is probably not as rare as predicted, but, among our patients with autoimmune thyroid disease, we did not recognize any patients meeting the required diagnostic criteria for encephalopathy. Some of our patients had headache, which was not linked with any previously identified disease.