Abstract:

Objective To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of selenium in treatment of autoimmune thyroiditis (AITD). Methods Based on the principle and methods of Cochrane systematic review, the Cochrane Library, Medline, Embase, Chinese Biomedicine Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals and Wanfang Data were searched, and the randomized controlled trials (RTC) of selenium in treatment of AITD were included. Meta analysis was conducted for the data using RevMan 5.0 software. Results Seven RCT involved with selenium in treatment of AITD were included, and there were 513 patients in all. Meta analysis revealed that the positive rate of serum antithyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) in selenium treatment group was significantly lower than that in control group treated with placebo [weighted mean difference (WMD)=-342.67, 95%CI: -433.33 to -242.02, P<0.000 01], and the healthy status of the former was better than the latter (RR=2.79, 95%CI: 1.21 to 6.47, P=0.02). The adverse effects were less and moderate after selenium treatment. Conclusion Meta analysis of this study indicates that selenium therapy for AITD is effective and safe. However, the evidence is not powerful enough due to the low quality of trials and limitation of sample number. The rigorously designed, multicenter, randomized and doubleblinded trials with large samples are needed for further research.

Key words: autoimmune thyroiditis, selenium, systematic review, Meta analysis