Diagnostic significance of serum concentrations of soluble Fas ligand (sFasL) in children with autoimmune thyroid disease

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of the study was to assess serum levels of sFasL as a marker of thyroid dysfunction in children with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD). Design: The group comprised 45 newly diagnosed children with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Graves’ disease versus euthyroid control group: 11 with hypothyroidism (10 girls and 1 boy, aged 12.2 ± 1.9 years), 19 children with hyperthyroidism (15 girls and 4 boys, aged 12.4 ± 4.9 years) and 15 healthy subjects (7 girls and 8 boys, aged 10.5 ± 4.8 years). Methods: Thyroid function (TSH, fT4, fT3), autoimmune (ATG, ATPO, TRAb) and anthropometric (weight, height, BMI, BMI-SDS, Cole index) parameters were evaluated. sFasL concentration was measured by ELISA. Nonparametric statistical test and ROC analysis were performed to assess the data. Results: We found no significant differences in serum concentrations of sFasL between boys and girls in the studied groups. Significantly higher sFasL levels (median 0.26 ng/ml) were identified in children with hypothyroidism compared with the control group (median 0.06 ng/ml, p < 0.001) and in comparison to a group of children with hyperthyroidism (median 0.14 ng/ml, p < 0.05). ROC analysis indicates that sFasL effectively discriminated hypothyroid and healthy children (area under the curve/AUC = 0.897; p < 0,001; sensitivity: 100%, specificity: 73.3%), as well as both clinically opposing states: hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism among themselves (AUC = 0.833; p= 0,003; sensitivity: 94,7%, specificity: 72.7%). Conclusions: Our work shows that sFasL may be useful marker in the assessment of thyroid dysfunction in children with autoimmune thyroid disease.

Keywords:

• Soluble Fas ligand
• children
• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
• Graves’ disease
• autoimmune thyroid disease

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

This work was supported by the research grant of the Department of Pediatric Endocrinology and Rheumatology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences (UM 502-01-01104118-06037).