Soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 concentrations in patients with subacute thyroiditis and in patients with Graves' disease with or without ophthalmopathy.

Increased circulating soluble ICAM-1 (sICAM-1) levels has been previously reported in Graves' disease (GD) patients with or without ophthalmopathy (GO) and in patients with toxic nodular goiter but not in patients with subacute thyroiditis. Conflicting results have also been reported about the usefulness of sICAM-1 levels as a marker for the activity of hyperthyroidism. We have therefore determined sICAM-1 levels by a sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method in 10 patients with subacute thyroiditis (Group 1), who are at the initial or acute phase of thyroiditis, in 10 hypothyroidic patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (Group 2), in 10 patients with euthyroid nodular goiter (Group 3), in 10 patients with untreated GD patients with active ophthalmopathy (Group 4), in 10 hyperthyroid GD patients without clinical ophthalmopathy (Group 5), in 10 patients with GO who are euthyroid and treated with glucocorticoids for 3 months (Group 6) and in 20 normal subjects (Control Group). Groups 1,2,4,5 and 6 (P < 0.00001 for Groups 1,4,5,6 and P < 0.05 for Group 2) but not Group 3 showed increased sICAM-1 levels compared with the control group. However Groups 4 and 6 (patient with GO) showed significantly higher sICAM-1 levels (P = 0.0003 for Group 4 and P = 0.00013 for Group 6) than Group 5. Furthermore Group 4 showed slightly but not significantly higher sICAM-1 levels than Group 6. Mean sICAM levels were significantly decreased 3 months after glucocorticoid treatment (Group 6), but had not returned to normal levels. Three patients did not respond to steroid therapy and their sICAM-1 levels were not decreased. We concluded that patients with GO with or without hyperthyroidism and patients with subacute thyroiditis have elevated sICAM-1 levels. Moreover, sICAM-1 levels reflect the degree of inflammatory activity in the thyroid gland or orbital tissue independent of the thyroidal status, since we found elevated levels in both hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism.