Increased Incidence of Thyroid Dysfunction and Autoimmunity in Patients with Vernal Keratoconjunctivitis

Table 1

Demographic data, familial occurrence of autoimmune and thyroid diseases, and prevalence of thyroid dysfunction and autoimmunity in vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) patients and controls.

	VKC	Controls	𝑃
Subjects (𝑛)	288	188	—
Tarsal	23%	—	—
Mixed	16%	—	—
Limbal	61%	—	—
Males : females	202/86	133/55	NS
Median age (yr)	9.7	9.5	NS
Skin prick tests positivity (%)
Dermatophagoides	72%	—	—
Gramineae	56%	—	—
Cat fur	12%	—	—
Familial occurrence of autoimmune diseases	13.2%	6.3%	<0.05
Familial occurrence of thyroid diseases	9.4%	8.6%	NS
FT3 (pmol/L)	6.84 ± 0.66	6.51 ± 0.79	NS
FT4 (pmol/L)	15.52 ± 3.57	15.13 ± 4.31	NS
TSH (μUI/mL)	5.42 ± 2.31	2.81 ± 1.24	<0.0001
Subclinical hypothyroidism	6.6%	1.6%	<0.05
Overt hypothyroidism	0.7%	0.0%	NS
Autoimmune thyroiditis	5.2%	0.5%	<0.05

NS = not significant.