Biomedicine

Abstract

Background: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) is considered as one of the most common cause of hypothyroidism and it represents a significant public health challenge. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) alongwith thyroid function tests are two main diagnostic modalities used for its detection. This study evaluate the actual role of anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibodies in detecting HT. The correlation between thyroid profile parameters, like TSH, fT3, fT4, and anti-TPO were evaluated to establish the efficacy of integrating anti-TPO to enhance diagnostic precision. Materials and Methods: The study was done in Cytopathology section, Department of Pathology, Gauhati Medical College & Hospital. It is a retrospective cross-sectional study done on patients with confirmed hypothyroidism that were referred for FNAC within a period of 1 year. The patients presenting in the OPD with clinical features that indicate thyroid disorder and underwent hormonal tests like T3, T4, TSH and anti-TPO were subjected to FNA of thyroid and the samples were examined for cytological evaluation. Results: Out of the total 120 cases, 9 were male and111 were female. Among the total cases, 97 cases were confirmed by FNAC as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Out of these, 88 cases showed high levels of anti-TPO antibodies and 9 cases showed negative results for anti-TPO antibodies. The anti-TPO shows positive correlation with Hashimoto status (p ≤ 0.05) which makes sense as anti-TPO is a key marker for Hashimoto’s disease. Conclusion: The anti-TPO antibodies is a non-invasive and valuable method to predict HT, but further confirmatory test like FNAC and histopathological are examination required.