Levels of Thyroid Autoantibodies in Patients with Graves' Disease and Graves' Ophtalmopathy/ Graves Hastaliginda Ve Graves Oftalmopatisinde Tiroid Otoantikor Duzeyleri (Original Article/ Orijinal Makale) (Report‪)‬

Introduction Graves' ophtalmopathy (GO) is a potentially serious ocular complication of the auto-immune thyroid disease (AITD). The treatment of GO is not always successful and the disease can cause constant damage to the anatomy and function of the eye. Close observation of subjects with AITD at high risk of GO would facilitate early preventive measures against this debilitating complication. Little is known about the risk factors for GO such as age, male gender, type of antithyroid treatment and smoking (1). The precise pathological processes, which link both autoimmune diseases are still under debate (2,3). Auto-antibodies to thyroidal antigens might be involved in the disease progress of GO per se. The leading role of TSH-receptor antibodies (TRAb) is now accepted by many thyroidologists and their measurement might be of clinical use (4-7). Other potential orbital antigens include thyroglobulin and cholinesterase epitopes, the flavoprotein subunit of the mitochondrial succinate dehydrogenase, a 55 kDa protein (G2s), calsequestrin and others (8-11). Thyroglobulin (TG) might be produced in small amounts by the orbital fat tissue, so antithyroglobulin antibodies (TGAb) seem to be of practical interest in GO (9-12). However, most publications have been focused on the measurement of TRAb in GO. The aim of the present study was to investigate thyroid function and autoantibodies in patients diagnosed with Graves' disease (GD) with and without GO.