Interstitial Lung Diseases Coexisting with Autoimmune Thyroid Diseases

Objective: Autoimmune diseases invlolve immune reactions to a particular organ or cell type and may lead to multisystemic diseases. The prevalance of autoimmune thyroiditis is 13.4% and it can exist together with other autoimmune diseases. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the association of interstitial lung disease (ILD) with autoimmune thyroid diseases. Methods: In this study, 24 cases with the diagnosis of ILD were included. Thyroid function tests, thyroid auto-antibodies and thyroid ultrasonography were carried out on all cases. Thyroid fine needle biopsy was performed in some patients, with the indication of the endocrinology department, to confirm the diagnosis. On the other hand, 19 patients who were diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis were evaluated in terms of ILD with chest radiography, thorax high-resolution computed tomography, pulmonary function tests and diffusion test. Results: The mean age of 24 patients diagnosed as ILD (19 females, 5 males) was 47.8 +/- 15.1 years. ILD diagnoses of patients were sarcoidosis (n=10), non-diagnostic (n=8), pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis (n=2), pulmonary involvement of rheumatoid arthritis (n=2) and pneumoconiosis (n=2). Chronic thyroiditis (n=8), chronic thyroiditis with multinodular goiter (n=7), diffuse goiter (n=2) and multinodular goiter (n=4) were detected in cases with ILD. Only 3 patients' thyroid findings were normal. Fifteen patients (62.5%) had autoimmune thyroiditis. On the other hand, the mean age of 19 patients with autoimmune thyroiditis (all patients were female) was 41.84 +/- 12.49 years. None of the patients had clinical, physiological or radiological findings for ILD. Conclusion: In our study, we identified that the prevalence of autoimmune thyroiditis was significantly higher than normal in patients with ILD. We consider that detailed assessment in terms of thyroid disease will achieve early recognition of possible thyroid pathology for ILD diagnosed patients.