Hepatitis C Virus Infection is Probably Associated with Autoimmune Disorders and Malignancies but not with Autoimmune Thyroiditis

In this study initially consecutive patients with Autoimmune Thyroiditis (AT) were taken in the Endocrinology Polyclinics. Beside that age and sex-matched patients with HCV infection and control cases were randomly studied in the Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine Polyclinics, respectively. One hundred and seventy-two patients with AT, 62 with HCV infection and 110 control cases were studied. AT was diagnosed in eight (12.9%) cases of the HCV infecteds group and this ratio was 11.8% (13 cases) in the control group (p>0.05). Similarly, HCV infection was detected in one (0.5%) case of AT group and this ratio was 0.9% (one case) in the control group (p>0.05). Parallel to these results, prevalences of antithyroid peroxidase and/or antithyroglobulin antibodies were detected as 29.0% (18 cases) and 32.7% (36 cases) in the HCV infecteds and control groups, respectively (p>0.05). As another face of the results, it was detected one case of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and one case of lichen planus in the HCV infecteds group. As a conclusion, HCV infection may be associated with autoimmune disorders and malignancies but not with AT.