The Study
Autoimmune Switch of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis to Graves’ Disease: A Rare Case Report
This study is like writing about one person who got better after eating a special fruit. It doesn’t prove the fruit cured anyone else—it just shows what happened to one person. We can’t say the fruit causes healing, only that it happened once.
Analysis score
Maximum 30 for a case report.
Where the score came from
A woman had an underactive thyroid for years, took medicine to fix it, and then suddenly her thyroid became overactive — even though she didn’t change her medicine.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 524 / 100
Quality score
Snapshots of a population at a single point in time, or descriptions of small groups. Can identify correlations and prevalence, but cannot determine cause and effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — this is extremely rare; fewer than 50 such cases exist worldwide despite millions having Hashimoto’s.
- 2After 10 years of stable thyroid function on levothyroxine, her TSH dropped to 0.001 mIU/mL, FT4 rose to 33.0 pmol/L, and TRAb became detectable (7.76 IU/L).
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Bangladesh Journal of Nuclear Medicine
Year
2026
Authors
Sujon Mahmud, Md. Sunny Anam Chowdhury, Md Nazmul Hossain, Fariha Zerin, Bahalul Hasan
Related Content
Claims (6)
In some people with autoimmune thyroiditis, the immune system's attack on the thyroid gland can lead to either an overactive or underactive thyroid, depending on how much damage has occurred and at what stage.
A woman with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, who had been stable on thyroid hormone replacement for ten years, developed hyperthyroidism alongside a change in her autoimmune antibodies from those targeting the thyroid peroxidase to those targeting the thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor.
In some people with long-term Hashimoto’s thyroiditis who later develop hyperthyroidism, antibodies that activate the TSH receptor can be found, suggesting a change in the type of immune response directed at this receptor.
Although autoimmune thyroid diseases like Hashimoto's and Graves' disease are common, switching from one to the other is very rare, with fewer than 50 confirmed cases reported in medical records.
In some people with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis who later develop hyperthyroidism, thyroid-stimulating receptor antibodies can be found in the blood, but their presence alone does not prove they cause the shift to hyperthyroidism, because other biological processes like thyroid damage or changes in immune activity may also be involved.
When a person with long-term Hashimoto's thyroiditis develops symptoms of an overactive thyroid, doctors must rule out excessive levothyroxine dosing and other non-autoimmune causes before diagnosing Graves' disease, because the signs and lab results can look very similar.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.