الفهرس 
Hepatitis c virusOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 101 |  |  |
| | | from | 101 | | |
Abstract
The causes of association between hepatitis C and auto - antibodies formation are not clear, extra-hepatic immunologic abnormalities have been shown to occur frequently in patients with chronic h~til; C v1rofi Various autoantibodies have been seen in the serum of HeV patients especially thyroid auto - antibodies
This study was conducted on 45 chronic HeV patients (24 men and 21 women; mean age = 43.8 :t 7.6 yr) and 9 chronic HBsAg positive patients (5 men and 4 women; mean age = 43.1 ± 6.7 YI). The study also included 17 healthy indi v iduals as controls (9 men and 8 women; mean age = 44.8 ± 7.8 yr).
They were subjected to full clinical evaluation (History & examination), liver function tests, thyroid function tests and the presence of thyroid auto-antibodies. Antibodies to hepatitis C virus was detected with a third generation ELISA and confirmed with PeR. In the present study, the prevalence or thyroid auto-antibodies (thyroglobulin and. thyrooperoxidase autoantibudies] were assayed in both groups Qf HeV patients, HBsAg positive patients and the controls, The study revealed that one of 24 men (4.1 ’Yo) (If chronic heaptitis C patients had thyro-peroxidase autooantibodies. On the other hand, seven of 2] women (33.3%) ofHCV patients had thyroid auto-antibe)dies, Six of them (28,5%) had thymmperoxidase aoto-antibodies, three of them had thyrogloblin autooantibodies and two of them had both thyroglobulin and thyroperoxidase autoantibodies, Three women of HeV patients with thyroid autoantibodies had hormonal values consistent with hypothyroidism,
None of the HBs-Ag positive patients QJ the controls had thyroid auto-antibodies _
In the present study, the association between Hev infection and the presence of thyroid auto-antibodies in female patients was clearly confirmed (P = 0.029). However, further studies are needed and a long term follow up study is required