Autoimmune and Neoplastic Thyroid Diseases Associated with Hepatitis C Chronic Infection

Fallahi, Poupak; Ferrari, Silvia Martina; Politti, Ugo; Giuggioli, Dilia; Ferri, Clodoveo; Antonelli, Alessandro

Evidence for this association also came from a study that reported a higher prevalence of hypothyroidism and AbTgs in untreated children with CHC compared to healthy non-HCV infected controls [51] . In most studies, examining the frequency of thyroid disorders in patients with HCV, approximately 10-15% of the patients had positive thyroid antibodies before the beginning of the therapy with IFN [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] . Moreover, pooling of data from controlled studies on HCV infection and thyroid autoimmunity demonstrated a significant increase in the risk of thyroiditis in HCV patients [59] . A large study which included 146394 patients infected with HCV confirmed these results showing a significant increased risk for thyroiditis [60] . This was a retrospective cohort study of users of US Veterans Affairs health care facilities from 1997 to 2004, which included 146394 CHC patients International Journal of Endocrinology 3 who had at least 2 visits and 572293 patients uninfected with HCV. The thyroiditis risk was significantly increased in HCV patients. Since 97% of HCV patients were men and it is well known that male gender has a lower risk of thyroiditis than female, this result is particularly interesting [60] .