Thyroid abnormalities in diabetes mellitus.

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Abstract
We studied the incidence of goiters and that of thyroid antibodies in 278 patients with diabetes mellitus, in whom six subjects with primary hypothyroidism were excluded, and measured their serum TSH concentrations. The incidence of goiters was 31.8%, and was higher in females than in males. The incidence of goiters in diabetics under the age of 40 was higher than that in subjects more than 40 years old, and the incidence of microsome antibodies and thyroglobulin antibodies were found to be 18.5% and 1.8%, respectively, in these two groups. The percentage of microsome antibodies was lower in diabetics between the ages of 40 and 60 than in diabetics under the age of 40 or over the age of 60. The incidence of goiters and microsome antibodies was not related to the treatment of diabetes mellitus. There was a significantly positive correlation between serum TSH concentration and age in diabetics with serum TSH levels less than 5 microU/ml. As a result, although the incidence of goiters in diabetics was found to decrease with age, the incidence of thyroid antibodies and serum TSH levels were found to increase. These findings suggest that it might be possible to observe atrophic autoimmune thyroiditis, sometimes resulting in subclinical hypothyroidism, in aged diabetics.

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