The aim of the study is to determine if the development of thyroid disease during treatment with Ribavirin and Interferon-alpha for chronic hepatitis C delivers a better chance of achieving a viral cure.

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Hepatitis C is one of the major global causes of chronic hepatic infections, particularly in third world countries, and is associated with a significant rate of cirrhosis and hepatoma. In Australia and the United States of America, the burden of disease is significant. Unfortunately, the incidence and associated sequelae have been predicted to increase in the coming decades. Consequently, a large and growing number of patients will undergo treatment for hepatitis C. Of those receiving combination treatment with interferon (IFN)-a and ribavirin (RBV), approximately 5-10% will develop thyroid-related complications. Whilst there are a number of favourable factors in the prediction of favourable hepatic outcome such as genotype, ethnicity, and early viral load reduction, there are few published reports that assess the development of thyroid disease (TD) in relation to sustained virological response (SVR). Our previous meta-analysis did not find any difference, although this may be due to inherent differences in the published reports. The aim of this report is to investigate the hypothesis that the development of thyroid disease in patients treated for HCV is associated with a significantly increased likelihood of attaining SVR.

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