Objective:

To describe the prevalence of thyroid autoimmunity in a hospital-based population of pregnant women, and to explore its frequency in euthyroid and hypothyroid women, as well as the association between autoimmunity and the presence of obstetric complications.

Materials and methods:

Descriptive cross-sectional study. Accesible population: pregnant women seen at Centros Hospitalarios del Caribe (CEHOCA) in the city of Santa Marta, Magdalena (Colombia), between August 1 and October 31, 2017. Convenience sampling. Sample size: 120 subjects. Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (T4), free triiodothyronine (T3), thyroglobulin (TG) and thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibodies were determined. Descriptive statistics were used. Prevalence was calculated as the number of women with positive TG or TPO antibodies/number of women surveyed. Categorization by type of positive antibody and thyroid function (normal or hypothyroidism) was also done.

Results:

In women with uncomplicated pregnancies, the frequency of thyroid autoimmunity was 14.29%. Five patients (4.5%) had positive TPO antibodies, 14 patients (12.61%) had positive TG antibodies, while 3 of the women were positive for the two types of antibodies. Antithyroglobulin antibodies were the most frequent. Autoimmunity was found in 13.5% of euthyroid women, and in 18.2% of the women with subclinical hypothyroidism. No association was found between the presence of antibodies and miscarriage, pregnancy-associated hypertension or preterm delivery.

Conclusions:

The presence of antithyroid antibodies was found in 1 out of every 7 pregnant women as a sign of autoimmunity. Further observations are required in order to determine frequencies and normality ranges in the local population, as well as the clinical significance of this thyroid autoimmunity.

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