FAILURE TO FIND AN ASSOCIATION BETWEEN HEPATITIS-C VIRUS AND THYROID AUTOIMMUNITY

A high frequency of hepatitis C antibodies has been reported from Fran ce in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis. Two cases of Hashimoto's t hyroiditis in association with chronic active hepatitis and hepatitis C infection have also been reported. We have examined this potential a ssociation in 46 patients with autoimmune hypothyroidism and found tha t 16 apparently had hepatitis C antibodies in one of the two commercia lly available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), but all pati ents were negative in a confirmatory commercially available recombinan t immunoblot assay (RIBA-3) indicating that none of the patients were truly positive for hepatitis C antibodies. We also tested sera from 11 1 patients with proven hepatitis C infection and found no increased pr evalence of thyroid autoantibodies. These results suggest that hepatit is C infection is not a risk factor for the development of thyroid aut oimmunity in the United Kingdom.