Assessing Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies in Emirati Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Pilot Study

Afrin Pathan¹Javed Yasin¹CHARU SHARMA²Juma M Alkaabi^1*Adnan Agha^1*

• ¹Internal Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates
• ²Department of Genetics and Genomics, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates

Introduction: Anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPO-Ab) are detectable in almost all patients with autoimmune thyroid disease or Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) but may also be present in healthy individuals. HT affects females to a greater extent than males and can lead to overt hypothyroidism, which may increase the risk of abortion. There are no local data available on the prevalence of TPO-Ab among healthy females in the United Arab Emirates. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of TPO-Ab and to assess thyroid function status in healthy medical students.This cross-sectional study used convenience sampling to recruit participants, without any history of medical illnesses or prescribed medications, from the College of Medicine of United Arab Emirates University after obtaining informed consent. Routine demographic, anthropometric, and biochemical data, including TPO-Ab and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels, were obtained. The normal ranges for TPO-Ab and TSH (as per kit-specific recommendations) are 0-34 IU/mL and 0.27-4.20 µIU/mL, respectively.Results: A total of 90 healthy participants were selected with a mean age of 19.83 ± 1.41 years and all of them completed the blood tests. All male participants (n = 27) had normal TPO-Ab levels, whereas eight female participants (12.7%; n = 63) had elevated TPO-Ab levels with a mean 40.03 ± 102. IU/mL. Three female participants (4.5%, n = 63) had abnormally elevated TSH levels without any clinical symptoms.Elevated TPO-Ab was observed in 12.7% (95% CI: 5.7-23.5%) of young female medical students in this pilot study. These preliminary findings suggest the need for larger prospective studies to evaluate the clinical significance of elevated TPO-Ab and possible related complications.