Thyroid Disorder in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients in Southeast Iran

Background: we conducted this study to clarify the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (sle) and compared it to a matched healthy controls group.material and methods: eighty-three sle and 166 matched healthy controls underwent clinical examination and laboratory evaluation for serum t3, t4, tsh and thyroid peroxides antibody (tpo ab).results: 24.1% of sle patients and 13.3% of control group had thyroid dysfunction (p value = 0.04). clinical thyroid dysfunction was seen neither in sle patients nor in the control group. elevated tsh levels were the most common dysfunction (19.3%) of the sle, compared with control group (5.4%). positive tpo antibody was detected in 16.9% of sle and 16.3% of the control group. mean level of tpo antibody was higher in sle patients with thyroid dysfunction (137.05) than sle patients without the disorder (30.8) (p value=0.007).conclusion: we concluded thyroid dysfunction was more frequent in sle patients than in healthy controls. moreover, sle patients with anti tpo were more likely to have thyroid dysfunction than the control group.