Background: Vitiligo is a commonly acquired pigmentary disorder, in which there is loss or destruction of melanocytes leading to depigmentation. The exact etiology is unknown; it is believed to be multifactorial with various theories believed to play a role, the important ones being the autoimmune hypothesis and the oxidative stress theory. The association of vitiligo with other autoimmune disorders, especially thyroid diseases, is known.

Aims & Objectives: To determine if a statistically significant correlation exists between vitiligo and autoimmune thyroid disorders.

Methods: A case-control study was carried out on 64 vitiligo patients (41 females and 23 males) and 64 age and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Patients with known thyroid disease, having history of thyroid surgery and those receiving thyroid medications and immunosuppressants were not included in the study. Serum T₃, T₄ and TSH levels along with anti-TPO antibodies were measured in all the subjects.

Results: There were 13 cases (20.3%) with thyroid abnormalities in the study group compared to 4 cases (6.25%) in the control group. This difference was statistically significant (p = 0.03). Also, anti-TPO positivity was seen in 12 cases (18.8%) in the study group, while it was present in only 3 cases in the control group (4.7%) resulting in a statistically significant difference (p = 0.025). However, TSH abnormalities between the 2 groups did not vary significantly. Also, no statistical significance was found in thyroid abnormalities between the children of the 2 groups. Anti-TPO positivity did not vary with disease severity and activity of vitiligo.

Conclusions: It is recommended that screening of otherwise asymptomatic vitiligo adults should be carried out on an individual basis, based on factors such as positive family history, female gender and age group of 20-40 years for a more productive and cost-effective outcome. Also, it might not be fruitful to screen vitiligo children for thyroid function. Similar larger studies are required to establish acceptable guidelines on full scale regular screening of vitiligo patients for thyroid function, especially in resource-limited settings.