Low Incidence of Latent Trichinosis near Blackpool Compared with Incidence Elsewhere in England and Wales.

Autoimmunity and Thyrotoxicosis-Anderson et al. i Discussion From the above evidence it may be concluded that certain " autoimmune diseases " tend to occur together in various combinations and that thyrotoxicosis also participates in combinations with these diseases. In advancing these conclusions as evidence suggesting that thyrotoxicosis is an autoimnune disease, we are well aware that, with the possible exception of certain blood dyscrasias, no pathological process has been shown to be the result of autoimmunity: the evidence is perhaps strongest, but still not conclusive, in relation to chronic thyroiditis. Our evidence that thyrotoxicosis is an autoimmune disease is based entirely on its belonging to a group of diseases which tend to accompany one another and in which pathological changes in a particular tissue are commonly associated with the development of autoantibodies to that tissue. We are certainly not suggesting that any of the known thyroid auto-antibodies is the cause of thyrotoxicosis. However, it is of considerable interest that in 1957 Adams and Purves reported that the abnormal thyroid stimulator (L.A.T.S.) demonstrable in the blood in some cases of thyrotoxicosis is present in the y-globulin fraction of serum, while Kriss et al. (1964) have reported that L.A.T.S. has the characters of a 7S-y-globulin, and have suggested that it may be an autoantibody to the thyroid. If this claim is substantiated it seems probable that thyrotoxicosis will prove to be the first organ-specific auto-immune disease attributable to a circulating antibody, for the only known biological effect of L.A.T.S. is its stimulating effect upon the thyroid of various experimental animals. Summary The reported high incidences of thyroid and gastric antibodies In the serum of thyrotoxic patients was confirmed, and it was shown that the two types of autoirnmunity tend to occur especially in the same thyrotoxic individuals. Evidence that a genetically determined factor predisposes to various organ-specific autoimmunities is reviewed, and it is concluded, from the known occurrence of various autoimmunities in patients with thyrotoxicosis, that autoimmnunization plays an important setiological part in thyrotoxicosis itself. ADDENDUM.-Since this paper was submitted for publication the possible autoimmune nature of thyrotoxicosis has been discussed by D. Outbreaks of trichinosis are rare in England and Wales compared with Europe and the U.S.A. For each outbreak, however, there must be many latent cases associated with those that are diagnosed, and there must also be other sporadic infections occurring independently of these outbreaks. Outbreaks in which the parasite …