Evaluation of Salivary Glands by Ultrasonography and Inflammatory Markers in Children with Autoimmune Thyroiditis

Abstract

Introduction:Although more common in adults, autoimmune thyroiditis (AT) is one of the most common thyroid diseases in children and adolescents. Salivary gland involvement has been described in many studies of patients with AT. Several inflammatory scores are used to assess the inflammatory status of patients with systemic autoimmune diseases. We aimed to sonographically evaluate the parotid and submandibular salivary glands with inflammatory parameters in patients with AT in our study.Methods:Our study population consisted of 37 consecutive pediatric AT patients and 29 healthy control subjects. Ultrasonographic and laboratory evaluations of the study population were performed. Jamovi and MedCalc software were used to analyze the data.Results:The volume of the thyroid gland in the patients was significantly higher than that in the control group (p=0.030), while there was no difference in the volume of the salivary glands. Multiple logistic regression analysis was planned to assess the predictability of salivary gland involvement in patients with the disease. Both systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) and pan-immune inflammation value (PIV) were found to be predictors of salivary gland involvement in AT patients.Conclusion:We found that both SII and PIV inflammatory markers are predictive of salivary gland parenchymal changes in patients with AT, and SII is likely to be more valuable than PIV at this time.

Keywords

• autoimmune thyroiditis
• gland
• parotid
• submandibular
• sii
• piv