An Epidemilogical Study of Subacute Thyroiditis in Northern Japan

Abstract

It is difficult to study subacute thyroiditis epidemiologically since it occurs sporadically and infrequently. Information about 1,127 cases (108 males, 1,019 females, from 1967 to 1982) of subacute thyroiditis in northern Japan was obtained through a questionnaire. It was found that the usual age for the disease was forty, that females predominated in a ratio of 10.6:1, and that the prevalent month was July. In clinical features, the frequencies of the inflammatory symptoms were high in the acute phase of the disease, and the frequencies of hyperthyroid symptoms increased with the progress of the disease. According to the course of the disease (days after the onset without treatment), the patients were divided into seven subgroups, such as 1 approximately 7 days, 8 approximately 14 days, 15 approximately 21 days, 22 approximately 28 days, 29 approximately 42 days, 43 approximately 56 days and over 57 days, respectively. Compared with the 1 approximately 7 days group, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, serum T4 and T3 concentrations in the 15 approximately 21 days group showed a significant increase from 64 +/- 35 to 75 +/- 30 mm/h (p less than 0.001), 14.6 +/- 5.5 to 17.6 +/- 5.6 micrograms/100 ml (p less than 0.001) and 218 +/- 124 to 263 +/- 109 ng/100 ml (p less than 0.05), respectively, but the BMR showed as insignificant increase from 20 +/- 15 to 24 +/- 14%. The 24-hr 131I-thyroid uptake and resin sponge uptake (RSU) in the 21 approximately 28 days group were 1.2 +/- 1.5% and 35.1 +/- 6.7%, respectively; the former was significantly lower (p less than 0.02) and the latter was insignificantly higher than the values (2.0 +/- 2.6% and 33.9 +/- 7.9%, respectively) in the 1 approximately 7 days group. The recovery time in the steroid-treated group was 57.2 +/- 47.6 days, which showed a statistically insignificant difference from 64.8 +/- 50.5 days of the sodium salicylate-treated group. But the recovery time of 78.2 +/- 64.9 days in other anti-inflammatory drug-treated groups was significantly longer than that of the steroid and sodium salicylate-treated groups (p less than 0.001 and p less than 0.05). Among 9 viral diseases, such as measles, varicella, erythema infection, hand-foot and mouth disease, rubella, mumps, influenza, epidemic keratoconjunctivitis and acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis observed in northern Japan and Miyagi prefecture in the past 4 years, mumps, hand-foot and mouth disease and epidemic keratoconjunctivitis were prevalent in summer.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)