Autoimmune Thyroiditis In A Population With Rheumatoid Arthritis

Introduction: Autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT) associates a multitude of osteoarticular and muscular complaints but, in the same time, the association between AIT and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remains a matter of controversy.

Material, patients and method: We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study over 69 patients with RA admitted successively in the the IInd Medical Clinic of Railway Hospital between 01 Jan 2015 and 01 Aug.2015, subdivided into two groups: with and without AIT. A number of parameters were studied in each group: age, environment, parity and number of gestations, smoker status, education level, medium duration of disease, presence of rheumatoid factor (RF), of anti-cyclic citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, treatment for RA, VAS score, DAS 28 score.

Conclusions: The percentage of patients with RA and AIT is 17.391%, higher than in general population, and so we consider that screening for AIT in patients with RA should be done. Patients with RA and AIT have a younger age of RA onset, belong to the urban environment and have a higher level of education than the ones with RA but without AIT. No correlation between the occurrence of AIT and the presence of ACPA was found.