J Korean Soc Endocrinol.  2001 Apr;16(2):252-259.

Thyroid Dysfunction after Abortion

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Internal Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Samsung Cheil Hospital & Women's Healthcare Center, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Postpartum thyroiditis is an autoimmune thyroid dysfunction that occurs in the first year after a delivery. Although a postpartum thyroid dysfunction after a full-term pregnancy is well described, little is known about its association with an abortion. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical and laboratory findings in thyroid dysfunction that develops after abortion and to investigate the differences in the clinical course according to the types of abortion.
METHODS
Thirty patients who were proven to have thyroid dysfunction after either spontaneous or an elective abortion were studied. We analyzed their past history, the type of abortion, their clinical features, the laboratory findings and the courses of the disease.
RESULTS
Seventeen patients were hypothyroid and 13 were thyrotoxic at the time of the initial thyroid function evaluation. In the thyrotoxic group, the T3 and free T4 were significantly higher but the TSH was lower than in the hypothyroid group. The titers of antimicrosomal and antithyroglobulin antibody were not different between the two groups. In the thyrotoxic group, 3 cases showed normal values, 2 cases were hypothyroid and the remaining 8 cases were persistently thyrotoxic during the 2 months of observation. TSH receptor antibodies were absent in all of the transient thyrotoxic patients, but they were present in 83.3% of the persistent thyrotoxic patients. The clinical manifestations of the thyroid dysfunction were not different according to the type of abortion.
CONCLUSION
Reproductive-age women who have an abnormal thyroid function require careful history taking with respect to their history of regarding parturition or abortion in order to evaluate the possibility of a transient thyroid dysfunction after the abortion.


MeSH Terms

Antibodies
Female
Humans
Parturition
Postpartum Period
Postpartum Thyroiditis
Pregnancy
Receptors, Thyrotropin
Reference Values
Thyroid Gland*
Antibodies
Receptors, Thyrotropin
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