Measurements by Competitive Binding Radioassay of Serum Anti-Microsomal and Anti-Thyroglobulin Antibodies in Graves' Disease and other Thyroid Disorders¹

Abstract

ABSTRACT Using competitive binding radioassay methods, the anti-(thyroid)-microsomal (anti-M) and anti-thyroglobulin (anti-TG) content of sera of patients with Graves' disease and other thyroid disorders have been measured. A very high proportion of sera from 55 patients with previously untreated Graves' disease contained abnormal amounts of these antibodies, 98% and 89%, respectively. None of the untreated patients had normal serum concentrations of both antibodies. These results thus indicate that thyroid autoimmunity is uniformly a concomitant of untreated Graves' disease. Long acting thyroid stimulator (LATS) was detected in the sera of only 38% of the same subjects. There was no correlation in a given serum between any of the 3 IgG globulins with respect to magnitude of the elevation. Abnormal serum concentrations of anti-M and anti-TG were noted in 20% and 23%, respectively, in a group of 111 hospitalized control subjects. In an enlarged control series of 330 patients, 79 (24%) had elevated serum an...