Incidence and significance of organ-specific autoimmune disorders (clinical, latent or autoantibodies) in patients with vitiligo

The frequency of autoimmune disorders was determined in 373 vitiligo patients and in controls matched for sex, age and race. Vitiligo patients had an increased frequency of clinical autoimmune diseases of thyroid (7.5%), stomach (0.8%), parathyroid (1%), adrenal gland (1.3%). Vitiligo patients, without clinical signs of overt autoimmune diseases, also had a statistically significant increase in the frequency of gastric parietal cell (p less than 0.001), thyroid microsomal (p less than 0.05) and adrenal autoantibodies (p less than 0.05). This increased incidence of autoimmune manifestations was correlated with the duration of vitiligo. Furthermore in 94% of the patients with parietal cell autoantibodies a gastric biopsy showed atrophic gastritis. In addition, in 48% of the patients with thyroid microsomal autoantibodies and in 2 out of 6 patients with adrenal autoantibodies without overt diseases at the beginning of the study, the functional investigation of the target organs during the follow-up allowed the detection of the presence or that of the subsequent development of clinical or subclinical dysfunction.