Autoimmune Thyroid Disorder in Patient with Chronic Hepatitis C before Treatment

Creating autoantibodies against thyroid in Hepatitis C patients who are being treated with interferon is now recognized for several years. Recently, some studies have claimed that prevalence of autoimmune thyroid disorders in Hepatitis C patients is higher when they are not treated by interferon and/or at the beginning of diagnosis, however the area still remained controversial. In order to analyze autoimmune thyroid disorders in Hepatitis C patients who are not still treated by interferon and compare them with the control group this study has been conducted. A Case-Control study including 86 chronic hepatitis C patients before commencing treatment by interferon and 86 healthy volunteer individuals were examined. Data was collected using demographic and clinical variables questionnaires from both groups. FT4, TSH, Anti TPO and Anti TG examinations carried out in both group. The findings of this study showed increase Anti TPO in 4 cases in 13 case, increased is Anti TG in 5 case, sub clinical hypothyroid, ism sub clinical hyperthyroid in 3 ism and hyperthyroid ism in one case in the case group were observed. There was no significant difference between the case and the control group. We can conclude that there is no relationship between chronic hepatitis C infection and autoimmune thyroid.