Coeliac disease and autoimmune thyroid diseaseEDITor,-In their article Counsell et al state that the association between coeliac disease and autoimmune thyroid disease is not astonishing given that the HLA haplotypes B8 and DR3 are found more commonly in both than in the general population (Gut 1994; 35: 844-6).Based on the results of their data obtained in patients with coeliac disease they even suggest a routine check for thyroid func- tion at presentation and a recheck if a gluten free diet fails to repair macrocytosis or symp- toms, or both.Screening patients with autoimmune thyroid disease for coeliac disease, as it has been performed by Collin et all and by our group2 also unveils a clinically possibly impor- tant association between the two diseases.We, therefore, agree also with their second suggestion that coeliac disease should be con- sidered in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease.It seems noteworthy to me, however, to point out that patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis seem to have a higher risk of devel- oping coeliac disease than patients with Graves' disease.Patients with coeliac disease on the other hand also seem to develop hypothyroidism (Hashimoto's ?) rather than Graves' disease.Indeed, the young woman in our series of 27 patients with Hashimoto's disease, who was found to have oligosymptomatic coeliac disease was HLA-B8, DR 3 negative.This was not surprising, as we have shown earlier3 that the goitrous variant of this disease is associated with the HLA-DR5 haplotype.I therefore want to suggest that there must be another (additional ?) link between the two diseases.This in my view is even more plausible if you consider the reports that both, Hashimoto's thyroiditis and coeliac disease, may eventually result in lymphoma,4 5 whereas this has never been described in Graves' disease patients.