Co-morbidity and/or familial associations between six autoimmune diseases and atherosclerosis.

Comorbidity may reflect common susceptibility factors or secondary disease effects, such as inflammation in RA contributing to CAD risk [427]. Comorbidities with some of these diseases exist for alopecia areata [428], [429], vitiligo [430], [430,431], juvenile idiopathic arthritis [432], myasthenia gravis [433], [434], and Addison's disease [435], five additional PTPN22 -associated diseases, as well as celiac disease [436], [437] and pernicious anemia [438], [439].
A link between GD and CAD is potentially confounded by the anti-atherogenic properties of thyroid hormones [440].