Prevalence of Thyroid Dysfunction in Patients with Hepatitis C Virus Infection: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: Thyroid dysfunction is a recognized extrahepatic manifestation of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, yet its prevalence and clinical correlations, particularly with liver disease severity, remain under-investigated in treatment-nave populations.Methods: This cross-sectional study included 51 treatment-nave patients with chronic HCV infection.All patients underwent comprehensive evaluation, including thyroid function tests (T3, T4, TSH), anti-thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) antibodies, liver biochemistry, APRI scoring, and Child-Pugh classification.Patients were categorized based on thyroid function status and compared across hepatic function parameters.Results: Thyroid dysfunction was detected in 35.3% of patients, with overt hypothyroidism (19.6%) and subclinical hypothyroidism (13.7%) being most prevalent.Anti-TPO positivity was observed in 12.9% of the tested subgroup, suggesting autoimmune thyroiditis.A clear association was noted between worsening liver function and thyroid abnormalities.Patients with Child-Pugh class C and APRI >1.5 demonstrated a higher frequency of overt hypothyroidism.Female sex was significantly associated with increased thyroid dysfunction.Despite the absence of treatment, a pattern of immunologically mediated thyroid involvement was evident.Conclusions: Thyroid dysfunction, especially overt hypothyroidism, is common among patients with chronic HCV and correlates with hepatic disease severity.The findings highlight the need for routine thyroid screening in this population to facilitate early diagnosis and management.These results also support the hypothesis of a direct immunopathogenic link between HCV infection and thyroid autoimmunity, independent of antiviral therapy.