Doctors Identify Four Autoimmune Diseases in One Woman
Doctors found four confirmed autoimmune diseases in a 40-year-old woman after severe iron deficiency led them to discover autoimmune gastritis.
Details
A case report describes a 40-year-old woman in China who was found to have four confirmed autoimmune diseases: ulcerative colitis, autoimmune hepatitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, and autoimmune gastritis. The fourth condition came to light after doctors investigated severe iron-deficiency anemia that could not be explained by obvious blood loss. Tests showed that her stomach lining had become damaged and that cells responsible for producing stomach acid were affected, helping explain why her body was having trouble absorbing iron. The case also raised the possibility of autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 3B because several of her conditions fit the general pattern. However, the researchers could not confirm autoimmune thyroid disease because her thyroid had previously been removed for thyroid cancer, leaving insufficient evidence that the thyroid problem itself was autoimmune. The report is a single-patient case, so it cannot establish how often this exact combination occurs or prove that one condition caused another. The researchers suggest that unexplained iron deficiency may be an important clue when someone already has several autoimmune conditions, and they planned continued monitoring for possible complications of autoimmune gastritis.
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