The occurrence of antibodies to Yersinia Enterocolitica in thyroid diseases

With the exception of several distinct thyroid disorders whose pathogenesis have been defined, the etiology of most forms of thyroid disease is still unclear. The greatest attention has been directed towards understanding the pathogenetic mechanisms of Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, two disorders which share many pathologic and clinical similarities. Many causal factors such as (1) emotional stress, (2) genetic predisposition, (3) alterations in humoral and cell-mediated immunity, and (4) infections have been proposed for Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. The strongest evidence marshaled to date appears to implicate an immunologic pathway as the pathogenetic mechanism of these two disorders.