Study Shows High Prevalence of Anti-TSH Receptor Antibody in Fibromyalgia

A study has found that patients with fibromyalgia have a high prevalence of anti-thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) receptor antibody (TRAb). In the study, researchers from the Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine in Tokyo tested 207 patients with fibromyalgia for titers of free triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, TSH, antithyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb), antithyroglobulin antibody (TgAb) and TRAb, 25 of whom with subclinical hyper- or hypothyroidism were excluded. In the remaining 182 patients, 69 patients were identified as having autoimmune thyroid diseases, for whom the prevalence of positivity for TRAb was 20.3 percent, TgAb was 16.5 percent and TPOAb was 13.2 percent. Compared with previous studies of fibromyalgia patients, the prevalence of TPOAb and TgAb positivity was not significantly higher; however, compared with control populations in previous studies, TRAb titers were low. Identical clinical symptom profiles were seen for fibromyalgia patients with and without autoimmune thyroid disease.