Fig. 3

Prospective observation of the relative alteration magnitudes of serum total VitD, VitD3, VitD2, TPOAb, and TgAb levels in all the male patients with TAI (n = 335). Among the initial 2882 euthyroid male subjects, 335 TAI male patients were followed up for 1 year. The relative alteration (alter.) magnitudes (mag.) in serum VitD levels and thyroid autoantibody titers were calculated based on the following equation: the relative alter. mag. = (the level during follow-up—the baseline)/the baseline*100%. Mann-Whitney U Test was used to compare the alteration of serum VitD levels and thyroid autoantibody titers after follow-up with those of persistent VDD. Among the 335 TAI male subjects, 36 patients had persistent VDD, 73 patients had persistent non-VDD after increasing during the follow-up, 36 patients had persistent VDD, 86 showed persistent non-VDD after decreasing during the follow-up, 57 from VDD at the baseline became non-VDD during the follow-up, 47 from non-VDD at the baseline became VDD during the follow-up. VDD referred to VitD deficiency (serum total VitD < 20ng/ml) and non-VDD referred to VitD sufficiency and insufficiency (serum total VitD ≥ 20ng/ml). Serum total VitD, VitD2, and VitD3 were determined as described in Table 1