In order to discover whether or not thyroid function in patients with Hashimoto' s disease will move toward hypothyroidism with age, we investigated the thyroid function and antithyroid antibody titers at the initial examination and 5 years later in 181 patients with goitrous Hashimoto' s thyroiditis. Pregnant patients and those within 1 year of the postpartum period were excluded. The thyroid function was assessed before medication or at least one month after stopping it. At the initial

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... tion, 52% (94 cases) of the cases were euthyroid, 24% (44 cases) were subclinically hypothyroid and 24% (43 cases) were hypothyroid. It was not observed whether the incidence of hypothyroidism tended to be greater in older patients or in patients with longer duration of illness. Five years later, 68% of euthyroid patients at the initial examination remained in euthyroid state, 18% had become subclinically hypothyroid, and 9% were hypothyroid. The thyorid function was not evaluated in 5% of the patients because they were under treatment with 1-thyroxine. In the patients with subclinical hypothyroidism at the initial examination, 30% had become euthyroid, 23% remained subclinically hypothyroid, 32% had become hypothyroid and 16% were not evaluated. Thirty percent of the patients with hypothyroidism at the initial examination had become euthyroid, 7% were subclinically hypothyroid, 28% remained hypothyroid and 35% were not evaluated. The higher the titer of TGHA, the higher the 第66巻 第3号