Given a passage, construct a question on the basis of the information present in the passage. Construct the question in such a way that (i) it is unambiguous, (ii) it is answerable from the passage, (iii) its answer is unique (iv) it answer uses text phrases from the passage. Avoid creating questions that (i) can't be answered correctly without actually understanding the passage and (ii) uses the same words or phrases given in the passage.

Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is considered to be a Th1-related autoimmune disease (AID). Recent studies revealed that Th17 lymphocytes (producing mostly IL-17, IL-21 and IL-22) play a major role in numerous AIDs commonly thought to be Th1 diseases. More recently, another subset of Th cells, which produce IL-22 and thus so-called Th-22, have been identified. Few data are available in the literature on the role of IL-22, the main soluble mediator of both Th17 and Th22 cells, in HT.", 'Using IL-22 Quantikine ELISA Kit (lower limit of detection 0.7 pg/ml), we assayed serum levels of IL-22 in three groups of subjects: newly diagnosed HT patients (n=55, 5 males and 50 females, age 3817 years), non-HT patients with nodular goiter (n=30, 4 males and 26 females, age 4314 years) and an age- and sex-matched group of healthy individuals. HT patients were euthyroid and were not receiving any treatment.', 'HT patients showed significantly higher levels of serum IL-22 (group A, 4234 pg/ml) as compared to non-HT-goitrous patients (1815 pg/ml; P<0.001) and healthy controls (2013 pg/ml; P=0.014). Serum IL-22 levels did not differ between non-HT-goitrous patients and healthy controls (p=0.496). No significant correlation was found between serum levels of IL-22 and Tg-Ab, TPO-Ab or TSH in the HT patients.
Is serum interleukin-22 ( IL-22 ) increased in the early stage of Hashimoto 's thyroiditis compared to non-autoimmune thyroid disease and healthy controls?