[The role of autoimmune mechanisms in the hyperthyroidism-viral hepatitis syndrome: a possible noncausal association. A review of the literature and the authors' own cases]

Abstract

Several patients with both Basedow-Graves' hyperthyroidism and viral hepatitis were observed and it was hypothesised that this association could be explained by the individual genetic pattern in which an immunological fragility conditioned a predisposition to autoimmune diseases. This paper reports on the cases observed, the patients' histocompatibility antigen profile and the experimental data found in the literature on autoimmune involvement in the two diseases, whose association may not be coincidental.