P#05   Frequency and levels of thyroid autoantibodies in belarus children with alopecia areata

OO Yanovich, TV Vorontsova, AN Arynchyn, EN Shavrova, EI Kukharenka. Research Institute for Radiation Medicine and Endocrinology, Minsk, Belarus

Goal : The aim of study was to asses the prevalence of anti-thyroid antibodies (AB-TG and AB-TPO) in children with alopecia areata (AA) from different regions of Belarus.
Methods : Antibodies were measured by radioimmunoassay using Medipan diagnostica kits. Autoantibodies were detected in 121 patients (mean age 10.2 ± 0.4; 68 males / 53 females) having AA with various degrees of severity. 208 healthy children of the same age were studied as a control. Results : The mean levels of antibodies were significantly higher in patients with AA in comparison to control group: AB-TPO - 62 ± 25.2 U/ml vs 8.1 ±1.2 U/ml; AB-TG - 51 ± 15.5 U/ml vs 1.2 ± 0.1 U/ml (p<0.05). Frequency of positive AB-TPO was significantly higher in patients with AA compare to healthy children (11% vs. 0.9%, p<0.001). AB-TG was more frequent in patients with AA than in control but the increase was not significant (11% vs. 1.9%). Both AB-TG and AB-TPO were increased in 6.5% of children with AA (p<0.05). Taking into account different radioecological situation in Belarus after Chernobyl accident we divided all children with AA on two groups: 1- 45 children from radio contaminated region; 2-17 patients from uncontaminated area. The prevalence of positive AB-TPO in group 1 (13%) was almost the same as the group 2 (11.8%). The frequency of positive AB-TG in patients from group 1 was significantly higher in comparison to group 2 (21% vs. 0%, p<0.05). The proportion of children positive for both AB-TPO and AB-TG was higher in group 1 (p<0.05). The prevalence of thyroid antibodies (only AB-TG, only AB-TPO, or both) was significantly higher in group 1 than in group 2 (44% vs. 11.8%; P<0.01). Analysis of distribution and levels of antibodies depending on gender did not show any difference between boys and girls. Conclusion : Our study showed the increase of frequency and levels of thyroid antibodies in children with AA in comparison to control group. In patients with AA living in contaminated region, frequency of thyroid antibodies, especially AB-TG was higher than in patients from uncontaminated region.