ABSTRACT. Graves’ disease is an autoimmune thyroid disease and is the most common cause of thyrotoxicosis. Viral infections are frequently cited as a major environmental factor contributing to autoimmune thyroid diseases. Some reports indicate that the incidence of human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) antibody is higher in patients with Graves’ disease. The objective of this study was to determine whether HTLV-I infection and Graves’ disease are related. Our method was to determine the seropositivity rate of HTLV-I in patients with Graves’ disease in Mashhad, an endemic city in north east Iran. We recruited all patients with Graves’ disease who consecutively attended our endocrinology clinic at the University Hospital of Mashhad. Blood samples were collected from 105 Graves’ patients. We screened the patients’ serum for HTLV-I using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We then compared the seroprevalence of HTLV-I in the patient group with the viral infection rate calculated for the entire population of blood donors in Mashhad. No cases in our patient group were positive for HTLV-1 (0/105 = 0%). By comparison, the control group had a seropositivity of 0.664% (404/60,892). In this study, we found no association between HTLV-I and Graves’ disease in Mashhad. Further studies are needed to determine whether there is a relationship between the two conditions.

Keywords. Graves’ disease • HTLV-I • Human T-cell leukemia virus type I • Iran • Mashhad

Taghavi, M., Mojgan, A.Z., Robab, A., Shokufeh, B., and Reza, R.: Incidence of Seropositivity for HTLV-I in Patients with Graves’ Disease in Mashhad, North East of Iran. Thyroid Science, 4(7):CLS1-3, 2009.

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