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Increase in Antideoxyribonucleic Acid Antibody Titer in Postpartum Aggravation of Autoimmune Thyroid Disease^*

Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Osaka University Medical School Osaka, Japan

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. Nobuyuki Amino, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Osaka University Medical School, 1-1-50 Fukushima, Fukushima-ku, Osaka 553, Japan.

Serum antidouble stranded DNA antibody levels were measured during pregnancy and after delivery in women who had postpartum exacerbations of Graves’ and Hashimoto’s diseases. The changes in serum anti-DNA antibody levels closely paralleled those in the serum free T₄ index, significantly increasing in the thyrotoxic phase 3–8 months postpartum in women with postpartum exacerbations of thyrotoxicosis due to Graves’ disease and 1-3 months postpartum in women with postpartum destructive thyrotoxicosis of Graves’ and Hashimoto’s diseases. No change in anti-DNA antibody level was found in women with no postpartum exacerbations of thyroid diseases, nor could we demonstrate significant increases in serum anti-DNA antibody titers in patients with thyrotoxicosis due to subacute thyroiditis or in normal pregnant and postpartum women. The changes in serum anti-DNA antibody titers may reflect some generalized immunological abnormality in women who have postpartum exacerbations of Graves’ or Hashimoto’s diseases.

^* This work was supported by a research grant from the Intractable Disease Division, Public Health Bureau, Ministry of Health and Welfare, and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research 61480178 (to N.A.) from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture of Japan.

Received March 14, 1988.

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