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

• Published in: Autoimmunity (Chur, Switzerland) Vol. 50; no. 3; pp. 192 - 198
• Main Authors: Mikos, Hanna, Mikos, Marcin, Niedziela, Marek
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis 03.04.2017; Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Adolescent; Age Factors; Area Under Curve; Autoantibodies - blood; Autoantibodies - immunology; Autoimmune Diseases - blood; Autoimmune Diseases - diagnosis; Autoimmune Diseases - immunology; autoimmune thyroid disease; Biomarkers; Case-Control Studies; Child; Child, Preschool; children; Fas Ligand Protein - blood; Female; Graves' disease; Hashimoto's thyroiditis; Humans; Male; ROC Curve; Soluble Fas ligand; Thyroid Diseases - blood; Thyroid Diseases - diagnosis; Thyroid Diseases - immunology; Thyroid Function Tests; autoimmune thyroid disease; Hashimoto’s thyroiditis; Soluble Fas ligand; Graves’ disease; children
• ISSN: 0891-6934; 1607-842X; 1607-842X
• DOI: 10.1080/08916934.2017.1289180

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.