Thyroid Dysfunction in Patients with Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody–associated Vasculitis: A Monocentric Retrospective Study

Abstract

To the Editor: Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) is characterized by necrotizing vasculitis in small-sized vessels such as arterioles, capillaries, and venules1. The possibility of a link between thyroid dysfunction and autoimmunity has been considered and its prevalence was reported differently according to each autoimmune disease2. Given that AAV is one of the systemic autoimmune diseases affecting most major organs3, and there is cross-reactivity between thyroid peroxidase and myeloperoxidase (MPO) molecules4, the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction, including autoimmune thyroiditis, may be increased in patients with AAV. Previous studies reported the higher prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in patients with AAV than in the general population5,6,7. However, there was no study on the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in AAV patients in Korea. In this study, we investigate the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction and searched for the predictors at diagnosis of its development during followup for 3 months or greater in Korean patients with AAV. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 186 patients with AAV, who were classified as having AAV at the Department of … Address correspondence to Prof. S.W. Lee, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, and Institute for Immunology and Immunological Diseases, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50-1 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun–gu, Seoul 03722, South Korea. E-mail: sangwonlee{at}yuhs.ac