Prevalence of thyroid autoantibodies in ambulatory elderly women.

Major improvements in thyroid autoantibody testing have now become widely available. Seventy-five elderly ambulatory women from a senior citizens' center (mean age 74.5 yrs) were studied to reassess the prevalence of thyroid autoantibodies and to demonstrate how such tests related to clinical signs and symptoms of thyroid disease.

Restricted heterogeneity and T cell dependence of human thyroid autoantibody immunoglobulin G subclasses.

Twenty-five sera from patients with autoimmune thyroiditis, positive for thyroglobulin (hTg) and/or thyroid microsomal autoantibodies (M-Ab), were assessed by specific micro-ELISA to determine thyroid autoantibody immunoglobulin G (IgG) subclass distribution. Of the 25 sera, 22 were positive for M-Ab. All but 1 sample had restricted heterogeneity confined to IgG1 and/or IgG4 subclasses.