Background: Art increased prevalence of autoimmune (Hashimoto’s)
thyroiditis in adult patients with vitiligo has been described. This
association has scarcely been studied in children.
Objective. We sought to assess children and adolescents with vitiligo
for autoimmune thyroid disorder and to identify any predisposing factors
of this association.
Methods: In all, 54 children and adolescents (23 boys, 31 girls; mean
age 11.4 years) with known vitiligo were studied by physical examination
and laboratory studies.
Results: Four patients with vitiligo were already known to have
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. in 9 of the remaining 50 patients, autoimmune
thyroiditis was revealed at the time of the investigation. Of the 54
patients with vitiligo, 13 (24.1%) had autoimmune thyroiditis as
compared with 9.6% of school-aged children from an iodine-replete area
of Greece (P = .002). There was no association between thyroiditis and
clinical type of vitiligo, age at onset, mean duration of vitiligo, or
sex.
Conclusions: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is 2.5 times more frequent among
children and adolescents with vitiligo than in a healthy age- and
sex-matched Population. It usually follows the onset of vitiligo. We
propose that children and adolescents with vitiligo should be screened
annually for thyroid dysfunction, particularly autoimmune thyroiditis