CHRONIC HEPATITIS C

Abstract

Background: Pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin combination was themain treatment for chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients in Pakistan till 2016. An important sideeffect of this combination was thyroid dysfunction (TD). Objectives: To evaluate thyroid functionabnormalities in Chronic Hepatitis C patients treated with PEG-IFN and ribavirin. Study Design:Descriptive study. Setting: Outpatient Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology,Nishtar Hospital Multan. Period: January to September 2016. Methods: Using non-probabilityconsecutive sampling. There were 337 CHC patients enrolled in the study who fulfilled theinclusion criteria. Patients were given PEG-IFN plus ribavirin combination therapy and at 12weeks their serum Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) levels were measured to identify any TD.Data was entered and analyzed by computer program SPSS-17. Results: Of these 337 cases,211 (62.6%) were male patients while 126 (37.4%) were female patients. Mean age of our caseswas noted to be 30.92 ± 5.84 years. Mean disease duration was 16.19 ± 6.42 months. In ourstudy 98 patients (29.1%) had genotype 2 while 239 (70.9%) had genotype 3. TD was seenin 28 (8.3%) patients, 70% of whom were females. Equal number of cases of Hypothyroidismand hyperthyroidism were seen (14 each). Hypothyroidism was significantly associated withrelatively older age group patients and genotype 3 (p value <0.05). A statistically significantassociation (p<0.05) was found between hyperthyroidism and genotype 3, female gender andyounger patients. Conclusion: PEG-IFN plus ribavirin combination therapy induces TD amongpatients with CHC with equal incidence of hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism.