Cellular immunity as a valuable factor for prognostic prediction in patients with Graves' disease under antithyroid drug therapy.

Studies were performed on 42 unselected clinically euthyroid patients with Graves' disease under maintenance doses of antithyroid drugs for various clinical parameters to determine the remission rate and to investigate which parameters carry weight in determining the outcome of the disease and could be good predictive factors. T3 suppression test was performed in all patients, after which antithyroid drugs were discontinued and outcome of drug therapy was evaluated for 18-24 months. Patients were divided into two groups; group A, 12 patients, who stayed in remission and group B, 30, who had recurrence during the first year (0.5-9 months) after discontinuation of therapy. Duration of clinical history was not different between group A (mean 62.3 months) and group B (59.6 months), nor euthyroid periods before the test (15.5 months for group A and 17.6 months for group B). For thyroid specific parameters T4, T3, RT3U, TSH, thyroglobulin (Tg), thyroid suppressibility after T3 administration and goiter size; and anti-thyroglobulin antibody (TGHA), anti-thyroid microsomal antibody (MCHA), TSH-binding inhibitor immunoglobulins (TBII), thyroid-stimulating antibodies (TSAb), peripheral lymphocytes count and lymphocyte subsets [CD3, CD4, CD8, Leu7 and CD20 (B1)], as immunological parameters were analysed by linear discriminant analysis method to observe the significance in discriminating patients with or without remission and to evaluate the validity for predictive factors. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)