Hashimoto's thyroiditis or
chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis is an
autoimmune disease in which the
thyroid gland is attacked by a variety of cell- and antibody-mediated immune processes, causing primary
hypothyroidism. It was the first disease to be recognized as an
autoimmune disease. It was first described by the Japanese specialist
Hakaru Hashimoto in a paper published in Germany in 1912.