Chronic urticaria and autoimmune thyroiditis.

GOAL: Idiopathic chronic urticaria may be associated to other auto-immune diseases, in particular thyroiditis. The goal of our study is to show that this association is higher than the incidence of auto-immune thyroiditis in the general population.

METHODS: It is a retrospective observational study including 90 patients with chronic urticaria. We calculated the proportion of patients having associated auto-immune thyroiditis based on a level of anti-TPO >220 mUI/ml.

RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 36.7 years with a sex ratio F/H of 2.9/1. The anti-TPO antibodies were positive in 16 patients (17.7%). Eight were euthyroid, seven had hypothyroidism and one had hyperthyroidism with positive anti-TSH receptor antibodies. The percentage of anti-TPO antibodies in the chronic urticaria patients was higher than the control group (17.7 vs. 8.7; p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION: This significant association between chronic urticaria and autoimmune thyroiditis may change the medical practice in Lebanon by including anti-TPO and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies in the workup of patients with chronic urticaria.