A Comparison of the Thyroid Autoantibodies and Urinary Iodine Concentration in Hypothyroid and Normal Individuals in Rafsanjan City in 2006

Thyroid disorders are among the most prevalent autocrine diseases. The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of thyroid autoantibodies and iodine consumption in hypothyroid patients and healthy subjects. This cross-sectional study was performed through simple non-probability sampling on 75 hypothyroid subjects (TSH >5 mIU/ml, T4 <60 nmol/L and T3RUP=30 - 40%) age 20-75 (M/F=28/47) as cases, and 75 normal individuals (TSH and T4 normal, sex and age matched with the case group) as control. Urinary iodine concentration, antithyroperoxidase (Anti-TPO) and antithyroglobulin (Anti-Tg) were measured in all individuals. Statistical analysis was done in SPSS12, using t-test and Fisher’s exact test. P-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. In hypothyroid individuals urinary iodine concentration was less than the control group (p<0.0001), whereas Anti-TPO and Anti-Tg were significantly higher (p<0.0001 and p<0.0001 respectively). Fifty percent of the subjects, above 60 years old, had urinary iodine deficiency. Thyroid autoimmunity is one of the main causes of hypothyroidism in Rafsanjan city and it seems that autoimmunity is not due to the increase of iodine consumption. In addition, iodine deficiency is a health problem in elderly individuals in this study and considering the special conditions of these individuals it must be replaced with other manners.