Table 1Levels of anti-thyroid antibodies selleck chemical and thyroid function tests in patients with PV and control subjects.Primary thyroid disease (PTD) was found in 13 (16%) of the patients: subclinical Hashimoto thyroiditis in 7 (9%), subclinic hyperthyroidism in 2 (2,5%), subclinic hypothyroidism in 3 (3,7%), and euthyroid syndrome in 1 (1%). Six of the patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis had anti-TPO, one had anti-Tg, and one had both anti-TPO and anti-Tg while 4 had alterations in thyroid function tests (Table 2). Four (5%) individuals in the control group were found to have PTD. One of them (1%) had subclinical Hashimoto thyroiditis, 1 (1%) had subclinical hyperthyroidism, and 2 (2.5%) had subclinical hypothyroidism. The one with Hashimoto thyroiditis had alterations in thyroid functions (Table 3).

There was a significant difference between patients and control group with respect to presence of PTD (P < 0.05) and PV group had a higher frequency of PTD. In addition, the frequency of Hashimoto thyroiditis was higher in PV group than the control group (P < 0.05).Table 2Thyroid functions and anti-thyroid antibody levels in PV patients with thyroid disease.Table 3Thyroid functions and anti-thyroid antibody levels in control subjects with thyroid disease.Of the 13 PV patients with PTD 6 (46%) were receiving 5�C40mg/day prednisolone while 7 (54%) were without treatment. We found no association between steroid usage and presence of PTD in PV patients (P > 0.05). Of the PV patients with PTD, 5 (38.

5%) had mucosal, 3 (23%) had cutaneous, and 5 (38,5%) had both cutaneous and mucosal involvement; mucosal involvement was found more prevalent in PV patients with PTD but there was no significant difference when compared with PV patients (P > 0.05). Hashimoto thyroiditis was found in 4 (%30.8) patients with mucosal involvement, in 1 (7.7%) patient with cutaneous involvement, and in 2 (15.4%) patients with both cutaneous and mucosal involvement. PV patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis had a higher frequency of mucosal involvement but this finding was statistically insignificant (P > 0.05). Of the patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis 2 were receiving systemic corticosteroids and 5 were without treatment; we found no significant association between Hashimoto thyroiditis and systemic steroid usage (P > 0.05).4.

DiscussionAutoimmune disorders may accompany each other and co-existence of PV with autoimmune disorders such as myasthenia gravis, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and Graves’ disease has been reported [7]. In addition, autoimmune thyroid disorders have been reported in association with PV [3, 8, 9]. In our study we found alterations in thyroid function tests and thyroid autoantibodies in 16% of PV patients and 5% of the controls. The alterations Cilengitide in serum thyroid profiles were significantly higher in PV patients. Our findings were similar to the findings of Pitoia et al.