Faisal Latif, Nauman Anjum, Tahir Bashir, Fatima Hamdani, Tahira Liaquat, Sajid Nisar.
Frequency Of Thyroid Dysfunction In Patients Of Chronic Hepatitis C Treated With Interferon Alpha 2B And Ribavirin.
Esculapio J Services Inst Med Sci Jan ;12(4):175-8.

Objective: To determine the frequency of thyroid dysfunction in patients of chronic hepatitis C treated with Interferon alpha 2b and Ribavirin. Methods: A total of 120 cases having active hepatitis C assessed by HCV RNA PCR as per operational definition for atleast 3 months between 15 years to 60 years of both gender were included in the study from outdoor of Services Hospital Lahore after a written informed consent. All the demographics including name, age, gender and address were entered in a pre-defined questionnaire. Patients were treated with Interferon alpha 2b (dose) three million international units subcutaneously three times a week and Ribavirin (dose) 1200 mg oral daily for 24 weeks. As per hospital routine Thyroid dysfunction was evaluated as per operational definitions by collecting 4ml of blood in a 5cc syringe at 0 (baseline) and 12 week. Presence or absence of thyroid dysfunction at 12 weeks was labelled as per operational definition. Results: In our study, out of 120 cases, 42.5%(n=51) were between 15-40 years while 57.5% (n=69) were between 41-60 years of age, mean±sd was calculated as 42.49±11.54 years, 59.17% (n=71) were male while 40.83% (n=49) were females, frequency of thyroid dysfunction in patients of chronic hepatitis C treated with interferon alpha 2b and ribavirin was recorded in 21.67% (n=26). Conclusion: We concluded that the frequency of thyroid dysfunction in patients of chronic hepatitis C treated with Interferon alpha 2b and Ribavirin is not very high but reaches at a considerable level and necessary steps should be taken for the management of this morbidity while interferon therapy is given to the Hepatitis C virus cases.

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