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Longitudinal evaluation of thyroid autoimmunity and function in pregnant Korean women

  • Seong-Min Han , Jeong Hee Han , Jina A. Park , Frank A. Quinn , Joonseok Park and Eunsuk Oh EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 27, 2013
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Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM)
From the journal Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) Volume 51 Issue 12

Abstract

Background: Maternal thyroid dysfunction during pregnancy has been associated with adverse outcomes for both the mother and child. For this reason, it is important to understand thyroid status in pregnant women. However, there are relatively few published studies that examine thyroid function tests (TFT) and thyroid autoimmunity in non-Western pregnant women.

Methods: Serum samples were longitudinally collected throughout pregnancy from 108 Korean women. TFT, thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPO-Ab), and thyroglobulin antibodies (Tg-Ab) testing was performed. The impact of gestational age on TPO-Ab and Tg-Ab levels was evaluated and gestational age-specific reference intervals for TFT were established in antibody negative women.

Results: In the first trimester, TPO-Ab and Tg-Ab were positive in 13.9% and 16.7% of women, respectively. For antibody positive women, median autoantibody levels for TPO-Ab and Tg-Ab dropped from first trimester to near term (133.7–10.5 IU/mL, and 162.1–21.9 IU/mL, respectively). Antibody status influenced thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) during the first trimester, and TSH, free T4 (FT4) and total T4 (TT4) in the early second trimester. Later in gestation, no significant differences in TFT were found based on antibody status. Gestational age-specific reference intervals for TFT were calculated in antibody negative women.

Conclusions: Laboratory evidence of autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) is common in this population of pregnant Korean women. Antibody status influences TFT values in the first and early second trimester. Thyroid autoantibody status and titer change in an individual-specific manner throughout pregnancy. Gestational age-specific reference intervals should be utilized for interpretation of TFT results in pregnant women.

Keywords: autoimmunity; pregnancy; thyroid function
Corresponding author: Dr. Eunsuk Oh, Department of Internal Medicine, MizMedi Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea, E-mail:

The authors would like to thank the patients who participated in this study, and Dr. Haiyoung Jung for her review of the manuscript. Reagents to perform this study were supplied by Abbott Diagnostics.

Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ conflict of interest disclosure: The authors stated that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article. Employment, stock ownership and supply of the reagents played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

Research funding: None declared.

Employment or leadership: F. Quinn (Abbott Laboratories); J. Park (Hamni Medicare).

Honorarium: None declared.

Stock ownership: F. Quinn (Abbott Laboratories)

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Received: 2013-04-05
Accepted: 2013-07-29
Published Online: 2013-08-27
Published in Print: 2013-12-01

©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2013-0598
Keywords for this article
autoimmunity; pregnancy; thyroid function

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Letters to the Editor
  2. The addition of MESNA in vitro prolongs prothrombin time similar to N-acetyl cysteine
  3. Detection of unknown β-thalassemia cases from atypical HbA1c chromatograms
  4. Analytical study of a new turbidimetric assay for urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) determination
  5. The rare bipolar-contracted red cell significance and correlation with red cell volume
  6. Howell-Jolly body interference in reticulocyte counts
  7. PBMC expressed adiponectin mRNA is predictive of survival in patients with gastric cancer
  8. Comparison study of two commercially available methods for the determination of infliximab, adalimumab, etanercept and anti-drug antibody levels
  9. Development and validation of a rapid and reliable high-performance liquid chromatography method for methadone quantification in human plasma and saliva
  10. Reply to Ruiz-Argüello et al.: Comparison study of two commercially available methods for the determination of infliximab, adalimumab, etanercept and anti-drug antibody levels
  11. Still more discussion on the journal impact factor
  12. The order of draw, myth or science
  13. Masthead
  14. Masthead
  15. Editorial
  16. Multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity at work: the prenatal diagnosis
  17. Research Articles
  18. Prenatal diagnosis of inherited diseases: 20 years’ experience of an Italian Regional Reference Centre
  19. Prenatal diagnosis of haemoglobinopathies: our experience of 523 cases
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  34. Longitudinal evaluation of thyroid autoimmunity and function in pregnant Korean women
  35. Evaluation of the N Latex free light chain assay in the diagnosis and monitoring of AL amyloidosis
  36. Identification of an important potential confound in CSF AD studies: aliquot volume
  37. Cancer Diagnostics
  38. Double heterozygosity in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in Italian family
  39. Quantification of EGFR autoantibodies in the amplification phenomenon of HER2 in breast cancer
  40. Diabetes
  41. SAA1 genetic polymorphisms are associated with plasma glucose concentration in non-diabetic subjects
  42. Acknowledgment
  43. Acknowledgment
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