Effects of Interferone Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection on Thyroid Functions in Egyptian Patients

Chronic hepatitis C virus infection (HCV) is a common health problem. Before the advent of the direct acting anti-viral treatment, the only approved treatment of HCV was the combined Interferone α (INF-α) and ribavirin. Unfortunately, INF-α had a limited success rate and many side effects including thyroid dysfunction in the form of hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism or silent auto-antibodies production. This study was done on 60 patients (42 males and 18 females) with HCV –related chronic hepatitis receiving treatment in the form of combined pegylated Interferone and ribavirin with a mean age of 46.37 ± 12.97 years, and 24 age and sex matched healthy controls. Thyroid function tests and serum chemokine 10 (IP 10) were done for all patients before starting treatment, after 6 months and after one year. We found that IP 10 level was higher in patients than control subjects, and it progressively increasing during treatment. On the other hand, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level tended to decrease during treatment