Autoimmune and non-autoimmune thyroid dysfunction in HCV infected and HCV-HIV co-infected patients before and after interferon alpha therapy: A prospective study.

Introduction: Autoimmune thyroid diseases are reported in no treated hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The standard interferon alpha (IFNα) treatment is associated with an increase of thyroid damage and dysfunction. The present cohort prospective study compared thyroid function and autoimmunity in HCV patients' monoinfected and coinfected HCV-HIV at baseline, during and after IFNα therapy.