Establishment of a tear protein biomarker panel differentiating between Graves’ disease with or without orbitopathy

BackgroundGraves’ orbitopathy (GO) is an autoimmune inflammatory ocular complication and one of the most frequent manifestations of Graves’ disease (GD). Clinical judgment of GO is subjective sometimes leading to clinical and therapeutic challenges. Better tools to diagnose this severe complication are warranted.Patients and methodsThe aim of the present study was to evaluate tear levels of LYZ, LACRT and AZGP1 in GD patients with or without GO, as possible biomarkers for GO. Tear samples were collected from GD patients with moderate-to-severe GO (n = 21) and no clinical signs of GO (n = 21). Additionally, 18 GD patients with mild GO and 9 patients without GO were included in a further part of the study.ResultsTear levels of LYZ (p ConclusionsWe have established a novel three-protein biomarker panel that is able to discriminate between GD patients with and without GO, which might aid in diagnostic evaluation of GO as well as an indicator for disease activity.