The making and unmaking of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis: On the mismatch between illness and disease. Results from an Italian study

Author(s):  
Mario Cardano ◽  
Eleonora Rossero

The diagnostic process in contemporary medical practice is increasingly technical, specialised and relying on population-based ranges of biological normalcy. Disease is defined according to a hierarchy of evidence that privileges specialist knowledge and marginalises subjective experiences of illness. Medical and individual definitions of the situation can conflict in two ways: (i) a diagnosis is made in the absence of symptoms, (ii) individual suffering does not constitute ‘real’ disease if it is not validated by scientific evidence. This article investigates how the discrepancy between specialist and embodied knowledge is experienced and tentatively solved by patients’ self-narratives. Starting from the analysis of 22 in-depth interviews with people affected by autoimmune diseases, we focus on the subgroup affected by Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Applying the most-different-systems design, we confront two flesh-and-blood ideal-types of illness narratives characterised by a mismatch between illness and disease. Their diagnostic trajectories are outlined and discussed as poles of a continuum of experiences resulting from different configurations of medical evidence of disease and subjective evidence of illness.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng-Pang Hsu ◽  
Hsin-Hung Chen ◽  
Tzu-Yuan Wang ◽  
Chun-Wei Ho ◽  
Ming-Chia Hsieh ◽  
...  

Thyroid ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyun Jung Kim ◽  
Sayada Zartasha Kazmi ◽  
Taeuk Kang ◽  
Seo Young Sohn ◽  
Dong-Sook Kim ◽  
...  

BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. e020798
Author(s):  
Chien-Hua Chen ◽  
Cheng-Li Lin ◽  
Chia-Hung Kao

ObjectiveTo investigate the relation of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) to cholelithiasis and cholecystectomy in a retrospective population-based study.SettingCohort study.ParticipantsWe identified 1268 patients aged ≥20 years with HT between 2000 and 2010 as the study cohort.Primary and secondary outcome measuresPatients without HT were randomly selected from a database and propensity-matched with the study cohort at a 1:4 ratio according to age, sex, comorbidities and year of the index date to measure the incidence of cholelithiasis and cholecystectomy.ResultsThe cumulative incidence of cholelithiasis was higher in the HT cohort than that in the non-HT cohort (log-rank test, p<0.001), with a 1.91-fold higher risk of choleithiasis (95% CI 1.58 to 2.33) after adjustment for comorbidities. The age-specific relative risk of cholelithiasis in the HT cohort was higher than that in the non-HT cohort for patients aged ≥50 years (adjusted HR (aHR)=2.59, 95% CI 1.33 to 5.03). The sex-specific relative risk of cholelithiasis in the HT cohort was higher than that in the non-HT cohort for women (aHR=1.99, 95% CI 1.63 to 2.44). Compared with those in the non-HT cohort, patients with HT without (aHR=1.95, 95% CI 1.53 to 2.49) and with (aHR=1.94, 95% CI 1.51 to 2.49) thyroxine treatment were associated with a higher risk of cholelithiasis. Compared with those in the non-HT cohort, patients with HT had a higher risk of cholecystectomy (aHR=1.28, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.61).ConclusionsInability to obtain information on several potential confounding factors and misclassification of important covariates are the major limitations of the study. Our study indicates HT per se was associated with the development of cholelithiasis, which has been validated by the association between cholecystectomy and HT. Surveys and health education on cholelithiasis in women aged ≥50 years with HT should be considered by clinicians, and further prospective research should be done on this topic.


2013 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 474-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bojana Jankovic ◽  
Karen T. Le ◽  
Jerome M. Hershman

Abstract Context: The link between Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) has long been a topic of controversy. There are conflicting reports; some suggest that these two are positively correlated, whereas other studies report no relationship. Evidence Acquisition: We performed a systematic literature review of original studies that investigated the correlation between HT and PTC. The two main search engines used to identify articles were OVID Medline and PubMed. The included studies were categorized into a fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) group and an archival thyroidectomy specimen group. Evidence Synthesis: There is no clear evidence to support the correlation between HT and PTC. Population-based FNAB studies report no linkage, whereas many of the studies of thyroidectomy specimens report a positive relationship. The average prevalence rate of PTC in patients with HT was 1.20% in 8 FNA studies of 18 023 specimens and 27.56% in 8 archival thyroidectomy studies of 9 884 specimens. The relative risk ratio of finding evidence of PTC in HT specimens ranged from .39 to 1.00 in the FNA group (average RR = .69) in contrast to 1.15 to 4.16 from the archival thyroidectomy studies (average RR = 1.59). In addition, there are many studies in the literature that propose a genetic link between HT and PTC involving the PI3K/Akt pathway and RET/PTC gene rearrangements. Conclusion: Although limited by the lack of definitive pathology, population-based FNA studies did not find a statistically significant correlation between HT and PTC. Thyroidectomy studies, which reported a statistically significant positive correlation, are subject to selection bias. More prospective studies with longer follow-up are needed to further elucidate this relationship.


2016 ◽  
Vol 86 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 9-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bekir Ucan ◽  
Mustafa Sahin ◽  
Muyesser Sayki Arslan ◽  
Nujen Colak Bozkurt ◽  
Muhammed Kizilgul ◽  
...  

Abstract.The relationship between Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and vitamin D has been demonstrated in several studies. The aim of the present study was to evaluate vitamin D concentrations in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, the effect of vitamin D therapy on the course of disease, and to determine changes in thyroid autoantibody status and cardiovascular risk after vitamin D therapy. We included 75 patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and 43 healthy individuals. Vitamin D deficiency is defined as a 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D3) concentration less than 20ng/mL. Vitamin D deficient patients were given 50.000 units of 25(OH)D3 weekly for eight weeks in accordance with the Endocrine Society guidelines. All evaluations were repeated after 2 months of treatment. Patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis had significantly lower vitamin D concentrations compared with the controls (9.37±0.69 ng/mL vs 11.95±1.01 ng/mL, p < 0.05, respectively). Thyroid autoantibodies were significantly decreased by vitamin D replacement treatment in patients with euthyroid Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Also, HDL cholesterol concentrations improved in the euthyroid Hashimoto group after treatment. The mean free thyroxine (fT4) concentrations were 0.89±0.02 ng/dL in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and 1.07±0.03 ng/dL in the healthy control group (p < 0.001). The mean thyroid volumes were 7.71±0.44 mL in patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and 5.46±0.63 mL in the healthy control group (p < 0.01). Vitamin D deficiency is frequent in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and treatment of patients with this condition with Vitamin D may slow down the course of development of hypothyroidism and also decrease cardiovascular risks in these patients. Vitamin D measurement and replacement may be critical in these patients.


2000 ◽  
Vol 39 (05) ◽  
pp. 133-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Dembowski ◽  
H.-J. Schroth ◽  
K. Klinger ◽  
Th. Rink

Summary Aim of this study is to evaluate new and controversially discussed indications for determining the thyroglobulin (Tg) level in different thyroid diseases to support routine diagnostics. Methods: The following groups were included: 250 healthy subjects without goiter, 50 persons with diffuse goiter, 161 patients with multinodular goiter devoid of functional disorder (108 of them underwent surgery, in 17 cases carcinomas were detected), 60 hyperthyroid patients with autonomously functioning nodular goiter, 150 patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and 30 hyperthyroid patients with Graves’ disease. Results: The upper limit of the normal range of the Tg level was calculated as 30 ng Tg/ml. The evaluation of the collective with diffuse goiter showed that the figure of the Tg level can be expected in a similar magnitude as the thyroid volume in milliliters. Nodular tissue led to far higher Tg values then presumed when considering the respective thyroid volume, with a rather high variance. A formula for a rough prediction of the Tg levels in nodular goiters is described. In ten out of 17 cases with thyroid carcinoma, the Tg was lower than estimated with thyroid and nodular volumes, but two patients showed a Tg exceeding 1000 ng/ml. The collective with functional autonomy had a significantly higher average Tg level than a matched euthyroid group being under suppressive levothyroxine substitution. However, due to the high variance of the Tg values, the autonomy could not consistently be predicted with the Tg level in individual cases. The patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis showed slightly decreased Tg levels. In Graves’ disease, a significantly higher average Tg level was observed compared with a matched group with diffuse goiter, but 47% of all Tg values were still in the normal range (< 30 ng/ml). Conclusion: Elevated Tg levels indicate a high probability of thyroid diseases, such as malignancy, autonomy or Graves’ disease. However, as low Tg concentrations cannot exclude the respective disorder, a routine Tg determination seems not to be justified in benign thyroid diseases.


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