Relationship between autoinmune thyroiditis and systemic lupus erythematosus

Introduction: systemic lupus erythematous is an autoimmune disease characterized by the presence of autoantibodies, in adition to the inflammatory process are responsible for the disease's clinical manifestations. It can be associated with other conditions such as autoimmune thyroiditis, this affection, sometimes, precedes the diagnosis of lupus. Objective: to describe the relationship between autoimmune thyroiditis and systemic lupus erythematous. Method: it is a descriptive, correlational and retrospective study, carried out in the outpatient clinic of the Andean hospital of Chimborazo in the period between January 2017 and July 2018. The universe was constituted by the totality of patients (137) who attended the consultation and who presented a diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematous. The sample was constituted by 97 patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria defined for the investigation. Pearson correlation was used to establish the relationship between autoimmune thyroiditis and systemic lupus erythematous. Results: the average age of 36.32 years with predominance of patients between 26 and 35 years of age. The female sex is predominated (91.75 %) and the evolution time is less than three years (46.40%). 32.99% of the cases with SLE also present a diagnosis of autoimmune thyroiditis that preceded the diagnosis of lupus in 90.63 %. Conclusions: the relationship between autoimmune thyroiditis and systemic lupus erythematous is described; both conditions share common autoimmune mechanisms, but the mechanism which interrelate both conditions is not completely clarified.